Diodorus Siculus: Library of History Volume 13

—The campaign of the Athenians against the Syracusans, with great armaments both land and naval (chaps. 1-3). —The arrival of the Athenians in Sicily (chap. 4). —The recall of Alcibiades the general and his flight to Lacedaemon (chap. 5). —How the Athenians sailed through into the Great Harbour of the Syracusans and seized the regions about the Olympieum (chap. 6). —How the Athenians seized Epipolae and, after victories in battle in both areas, laid siege to Syracuse (chap. 7). —How, after the Lacedaemonians and Corinthians had sent them aid, the Syracusans took courage (chap. 8). —The battle between the Athenians and the Syracusans and the great victory of the Athenians (chap. 9). —The battle between the same opponents and the victory of the Syracusans (chap. 10). —How the Syracusans, having gained control of Epipolae, compelled the Athenians to withdraw to the single camp before the Olympieum (chaps. 8, 11-12). —How the Syracusans prepared a naval force and decided to offer battle at sea (chap. 13). —How the Athenians, after the death of their general Lamachus and the recall of Alcibiades, dispatched in their place as generals Eurymedon and Demosthenes with reinforcements and money (chap. 8). —The termination of the truce by the Lacedaemonians, and the Peloponnesian War, as it is called, against the Athenians (chap. 8). —The sea-battle between the Syracusans and the Athenians and the victory of the Athenians; the capture of the fortresses by the Syracusans and their victory on land (chap. 9). —The sea-battle of all the ships in the Great Harbour and the victory of the Syracusans (chaps. 11-17). —The arrival from Athens of Demosthenes and Eurymedon with a strong force (chap. 11). —The great battle about Epipolae and the victory of the Syracusans (chap. 8). —The flight of the Athenians and the capture of the entire host (chaps. 18-19). —How the Syracusans gathered in assembly and considered the question what disposition should be made of the captives (chap. 19). —The speeches which were delivered on both sides of the proposal (chaps. 20-32). —The decrees which the Syracusans passed regarding the captives (chap. 33). —How, after the failure of the Athenians in Sicily, many of their allies revolted (chap. 34). —How the citizen-body of the Athenians, having lost heart, turned their back upon the democracy and put the government into the hands of four hundred men (chaps. 34, 36). —How the Lacedaemonians defeated the Athenians in sea-battles (chap. 34). —How the Syracusans honoured with notable gifts the men who had played a brave part in the war (chap. 34). —How Diocles was chosen law-giver and wrote their laws for the Syracusans (chaps. 34-35). —How the Syracusans sent a notable force to the aid of the Lacedaemonians (chap. 34). —How the Athenians overcame the Lacedaemonian admiral in a sea-fight and captured Cyzicus (chaps. 39-40). —How, when the Lacedaemonians dispatched fifty ships from Euboea to the aid of the defeated, they together with their crews were all lost in a storm off Athos (chap. 41). —The return of Alcibiades and his election as a general (chaps. 41-42). —The war between the Aegestaeans and the Selinuntians over the land in dispute (chaps. 43-44). —The sea-battle between the Athenians and Lacedaemonians off Sigeium and the victory of the Athenians (chaps. 38-40). —How the Lacedaemonians filled up Euripus with earth and made Euboea a part of the mainland (chap. 47). —On the civil discord and massacre in Corcyra (chap. 48). —How Alcibiades and Theramenes won most notable victories over the Lacedaemonians on both land and sea (chaps. 49-51). —How the Carthaginians transported great armaments to Sicily and took by storm Selinus and Himera (chaps. 54-62). —How Alcibiades sailed into the Peiraeus with much booty and was the object of great acclaim (chaps. 68-69). —How King Agis with a great army undertook to lay siege to Athens and was unsuccessful (chaps. 72-73). —The banishment of Alcibiades and the founding of Thermae in Sicily (chaps. 74, 79). —The sea-battle between the Syracusans and the Carthaginians and the victory of the Syracusans (chap. 80). —On the felicity of life in Acragas and the city's buildings (chaps. 81-84). —How the Carthaginians made war upon Sicily with three hundred thousand soldiers and laid siege to Acragas (chaps. 85-86). —How the Syracusans gathered their allies and went to the aid of the people of Acragas with ten thousand soldiers (chap. 86). —How, when forty thousand Carthaginians opposed them, the Syracusans gained the victory and slew more than six thousand of them (chap. 87). —How, when the Carthaginians cut off their supplies, the Acragantini were compelled, because of the lack of provisions, to leave their native city (chaps. 88-89). —How Dionysius, after he was elected general, secured the tyranny over the Syracusans (chaps. 92-96). —How the Athenians, after winning a most famous sea-battle at Arginusae, unjustly condemned their generals to death (chaps. 97-103). —How the Athenians, after suffering defeat in a great sea-battle, were forced to conclude peace on the best terms they could secure, and in this manner the Peloponnesian War came to an end (chaps. 104-107). —How the Carthaginians were struck by a pestilential disease and were compelled to conclude peace with Dionysius the tyrant (chap. 114).

If we were composing a history after the manner of the other historians, we should, I suppose, discourse upon certain topics at appropriate length in the introduction to each Book and by this means turn our discussion to the events which follow; surely, if we were picking out a brief period of history for our treatise, we should have the time to enjoy the fruit such introductions yield. [2] But since we engaged ourselves in a few Books not only to set forth, to the best of our ability, the events but also to embrace a period of more than eleven hundred years, we must forgo the long discussion which such introductions would involve and come to the events themselves, with only this word by way of preface, namely, that in the preceding six Books we have set down a record of events from the Trojan War to the war which the Athenians by decree of the people declared against the Syracusans,1 the period to this war from the capture of Troy embracing seven hundred and sixty-eight years; [3] and in this Book, as we add to our narrative the period next succeeding, we shall commence with the expedition against the Syracusans and stop with the beginning of the second war between the Carthaginians and Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans.2 3

When Chabrias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls three military tribunes, Lucius Sergius, Marcus Papirius, and Marcus Servilius. This year the Athenians, pursuant to their vote of the war against the Syracusans, got ready the ships, collected the money, and proceeded with great zeal to make every preparation for the campaign. They elected three generals, Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus, and gave them full powers over all matters pertaining to the war. [2] Of the private citizens those who had the means, wishing to indulge the enthusiasm of the populace, in some instances fitted out triremes at their own expense and in others engaged to donate money for the maintenance of the forces; and many, not only from among the citizens and aliens of Athens who favoured the democracy but also from among the allies, voluntarily went to the generals and urged that they be enrolled among the soldiers. To such a degree were they all buoyed up in their hopes and looking forward forthwith to portioning out Sicily in allotments. [3]

And the expedition was already fully prepared when it came to pass that in a single night the statues of Hermes which stood everywhere throughout the city were mutilated.4 At this the people, believing that the deed had not been done by ordinary persons but by men who stood in high repute and were bent upon the overthrow of the democracy, were incensed at the sacrilege and undertook a search for the perpetrators, offering large rewards to anyone who would furnish information against them. [4] And a certain private citizen,5 appearing before the Council, stated that he had seen certain men enter the house of an alien about the middle of the night on the first day of the new moon and that one of them was Alcibiades. When he was questioned by the Council and asked how he could recognize the faces at night, he replied that he had seen them by the light of the moon. Since, then, the man had convicted himself of lying, no credence was given to his story, and of other investigators not a man was able to discover a single clue to the deed. [5]

One hundred and forty triremes were equipped, and of transports and ships to carry horses as well as ships to convey food and all other equipment there was a huge number; and there were also hoplites and slingers as well as cavalry, and in addition more than seven thousand men from the allies,6 not including the crews. [6] At this time the generals, sitting in secret session with the Council, discussed what disposition they should make of Sicilian affairs, if they should get control of the island. And it was agreed by them that they would enslave the Selinuntians and Syracusans, but upon the other peoples they would merely lay a tribute severally which they would pay annually to the Athenians.

On the next day the generals together with the soldiers went down to the Peiraeus, and the entire populace of the city, citizens and aliens thronging together, accompanied them, everyone bidding godspeed to his own kinsmen and friends. [2] The triremes lay at anchor over the whole harbour, embellished with their insignia on the bows and the gleam of their armour; and the whole circumference of the harbour was filled with censers and silver mixing-bowls, from which the people poured libations with gold cups, paying honour to the gods and beseeching them to grant success to the expedition. [3] Now after leaving the Peiraeus they sailed around the Peloponnesus and put in at Corcyra, since they were under orders to wait at that place and add to their forces the allies in that region. And when they had all been assembled, they sailed across the Ionian Strait and came to land on the tip of Iapygia, from where they skirted along the coast of Italy. [4] They were not received by the Tarantini, and they also sailed on past the Metapontines and Heracleians; but when they put in at Thurii they were accorded every kind of courtesy. From there they sailed on to Croton, from whose inhabitants they got a market, and then they sailed on past the temple of Hera Lacinia7 and doubled the promontory known as Dioscurias. [5] After this they passed by Scylletium, as it is called, and Locri, and dropping anchor near Rhegium they endeavoured to persuade the Rhegians to become their allies; but the Rhegians replied that they would consult with the other Greek cities of Italy.

When the Syracusans heard that the Athenian armaments were at the Strait,8 they appointed three generals with supreme power, Hermocrates, Sicanus, and Heracleides, who enrolled soldiers and dispatched ambassadors to the cities of Sicily, urging them to do their share in the cause of their common liberty; for the Athenians, they pointed out, while beginning the war, as they alleged, upon the Syracusans, were in fact intent upon subduing the entire island. [2] Now the Acragantini and Naxians declared that they would ally themselves with the Athenians; the Camarinaeans and Messenians gave assurances that they would maintain the peace, while postponing a reply to the request for an alliance; but the Himeraeans, Selinuntians, Geloans, and Catanaeans promised that they would fight at the side of the Syracusans. The cities of the Siceli, while tending to be favourably inclined toward the Syracusans, nevertheless remained neutral, awaiting the outcome. [3]

After the Aegestaeans had refused to give more than thirty talents,9 the Athenian generals, having remonstrated with them, put out to sea from Rhegium with their force and sailed to Naxos in Sicily. They were kindly received by the inhabitants of this city and sailed on from there to Catane. [4] Although the Catanaeans would not receive the soldiers into the city, they allowed the generals to enter and summoned an assembly of the citizens, and the Athenian generals presented their proposal for an alliance. [5] But while Alcibiades was addressing the assembly, some of the soldiers burst open a postern-gate and broke into the city. It was by this cause that the Catanaeans were forced to join in the war against the Syracusans.

While these events were taking place, those in Athens who hated Alcibiades with a personal enmity, possessing now an excuse in the mutilation of the statues,10 accused him in speeches before the Assembly of having formed a conspiracy against the democracy. Their charges gained colour from an incident that had taken place among the Argives; for private friends11 of his in that city had agreed together to destroy the democracy in Argos, but they had all been put to death by the citizens. [2] Accordingly the people, having given credence to the accusations and having had their feelings deeply aroused by their demagogues, dispatched their ship, the Salaminia,12 to Sicily with orders for Alcibiades to return with all speed to face trial. When the ship arrived at Catane and Alcibiades learned of the decision of the people from the ambassadors, he took the others who had been accused together with him aboard his own trireme and sailed away in company with the Salaminia. [3] But when he had put in at Thurii, Alcibiades, either because he was privy to the deed of impiety or because he was alarmed at the seriousness of the danger which threatened him, made his escape together with the other accused men and got away. The ambassadors who had come on the Salaminia at first set up a hunt for Alcibiades, but when they could not find him, they sailed back to Athens and reported to the people what had taken place. [4] Accordingly the Athenians brought the names of Alcibiades and the other fugitives with him before a court of justice and condemned them in default13 to death. And Alcibiades made his way across from Italy to the Peloponnesus, where he took refuge in Sparta and spurred on the Lacedaemonians to attack the Athenians.

The generals in Sicily sailed on with the armament of the Athenians to Aegesta and captured Hyccara, a small town of the Siceli, from the booty of which they realized one hundred talents; and after receiving thirty talents in addition from the Aegestaeans they continued their voyage to Catane. [2] And wishing to seize, without risk to themselves, the position14 on the Great Harbour of the Syracusans, they sent a man of Catane, who was loyal to themselves and was also trusted by the Syracusan generals, with instructions to say to the Syracusan commanders that a group of Catanaeans had banded together and were ready to seize unawares a large number of Athenians, who made it their practice to pass the night in the city away from their arms, and set fire to the ships in the harbour; and he was to ask the generals that, in order to effect this, they should appear at the place with troops so that they might not fail in their design. [3] When the Catanaean went to the commanders of the Syracusans and told them what we have stated, the generals, believing his story, decided on the night on which they would lead out their troops and sent the man back to Catane. [4]

Now on the appointed night the Syracusans brought the army to Catane, whereupon the Athenians, sailing down into the Great Harbour of the Syracusans in dead silence, not only became masters of the Olympieum but also, after seizing the entire area about it, constructed a camp. [5] The generals of the Syracusans, however, when they learned of the deceit which had been practised on them, returned speedily and assaulted the Athenian camp. When the enemy came out to meet them, there ensued a battle, in which the Athenians slew four hundred of their opponents and compelled the Syracusans to take to flight. [6] But the Athenian generals, seeing that the enemy were superior in cavalry and wishing to improve their equipment for the siege of the city, sailed back to Catane. And they dispatched men to Athens and addressed letters to the people in which they asked them to send cavalry and funds; for they believed that the siege would be a long affair; and the Athenians voted to send three hundred talents and a contingent of cavalry to Sicily. [7]

While these events were taking place, Diagoras, who was dubbed “the Atheist,”15 was accused of impiety and, fearing the people, fled from Attica; and the Athenians announced a reward of a talent of silver to the man who should slay Diagoras. [8]

In Italy the Romans went to war with the Aequi and reduced Labici by siege.16

These, then, were the events of this year. 17

When Tisandrus was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Publius Lucretius, Gaius Servilius, Agrippa Menenius, and Spurius Veturius. In this year the Syracusans, dispatching ambassadors to both Corinth and Lacedaemon, urged these cities to come to their aid and not to stand idly by when total ruin threatened the Syracusans. [2] Since Alcibiades supported their request, the Lacedaemonians voted to send aid to the Syracusans and chose Gylippus to be general, and the Corinthians made preparations to send a number of triremes, but at the moment they sent in advance to Sicily, accompanying Gylippus, Pythes with two triremes. [3] And in Catane Nicias and Lamachus, the Athenian generals, after two hundred and fifty cavalry and three hundred talents of silver had come to them from Athens, took their army aboard and sailed to Syracuse. They arrived at the city by night and unobserved by the Syracusans took possession of Epipolae. When the Syracusans learned of this, they speedily came to its defence, but were chased back into the city with the loss of three hundred soldiers. [4] After this, with the arrival for the Athenians of three hundred horsemen from Aegesta and two hundred and fifty from the Siceli, they mustered in all eight hundred cavalry. Then, having built a fort at Labdalum, they began constructing a wall about the city of the Syracusans and aroused great fear among the populace.18 [5] Therefore they advanced out of the city and endeavoured to hinder the builders of the wall; but a cavalry battle followed in which they suffered heavy losses and were forced to flee. The Athenians with a part of their troops now seized the region lying above the harbour and by fortifying Polichne,19 as it is called, they not only enclosed the temple of Zeus20 but were also besieging Syracuse from both sides. [6] Now that such reverses as these had befallen the Syracusans, the inhabitants of the city were disheartened; but when they learned that Gylippus had put in at Himera and was gathering soldiers, they again took heart. [7] For Gylippus, having put in at Himera with four triremes, had hauled his ships up on shore, persuaded the Himeraeans to ally themselves with the Syracusans, and was gathering soldiers from them and the Geloans, as well as from the Selinuntians and the Sicani. And after he had assembled three thousand infantry in all and two hundred cavalry, he led them through the interior of the island to Syracuse.

After a few days Gylippus led forth his troops together with the Syracusans against the Athenians. A fierce battle took place and Lamachus, the Athenian general, died in the fighting; and although many were slain on both sides, victory lay with the Athenians. [2] After the battle, when thirteen triremes had arrived from Corinth, Gylippus, after taking the crews of the ships, with them and the Syracusans attacked the camp of the enemy and sought to storm Epipolae. When the Athenians came out, they joined battle and the Syracusans, after slaying many Athenians, were victorious and they razed the wall throughout the length of Epipole; at this the Athenians abandoned the area of Epipolae and withdrew their entire force to the other camp. [3]

After these events the Syracusans dispatched ambassadors to Corinth and Lacedaemon to get help; and the Corinthians together with the Boeotians and Sicyonians sent them one thousand men and the Spartans six hundred. [4] And Gylippus went about the cities of Sicily and persuaded many peoples to join the alliance, and after gathering three thousand soldiers from the Himeraeans and Sicani he led them through the interior of the island. When the Athenians learned that these troops were near at hand, they attacked and slew half of them; the survivors, however, got safely to Syracuse. [5]

Upon the arrival of the allies the Syracusans, wishing to try their hand also in battles at sea, launched the ships they already possessed and fitted out additional ones, giving them their trials in the small harbour. [6] And Nicias, the Athenian general, dispatched letters to Athens in which he made known that many allies were now with the Syracusans and that they had fitted out no small number of ships and had resolved upon offering battle at sea; he therefore asked them to send speedily both triremes and money and generals to assist him in the conduct of the war, explaining that with the flight of Alcibiades and the death of Lamachus he was the only general left and at that was not in good health. [7] The Athenians dispatched to Sicily ten ships with Eurymedon the general and one hundred and forty talents of silver, at the time of the winter solstice21; meantime they busied themselves with preparations to dispatch a great fleet in the spring. Consequently they were enrolling soldiers everywhere from their allies and gathering together money. [8]

In the Peloponnesus the Lacedaemonians, being spurred on by Alcibiades, broke the truce with the Athenians, and the war which followed continued for twelve years.22 23

At the close of this year Cleocritus was archon of the Athenians, and in Rome in place of consuls there were four military tribunes, Aulus Sempronius, Marcus Papirius, Quintus Fabius, and Spurius Nautius. [2] This year the Lacedaemonians together with their allies invaded Attica, under the leadership of Agis and Alcibiades the Athenian. And seizing the stronghold of Deceleia they made it into a fortress for attacks upon Attica, and this, as it turned out, was why this war came to be called the Deceleian War. The Athenians dispatched thirty triremes to lie off Laconia under Charicles as general and voted to send eighty triremes and five thousand hoplites to Sicily. [3] And the Syracusans, having made up their minds to join battle at sea, fitted out eighty triremes and sailed against the enemy. The Athenians put out against them with sixty ships, and when the battle was at its height, all the Athenians in the fortresses went down to the sea; for some were desirous of watching the battle, while others hoped that, in case of some reverse in the sea-battle, they could be of help to those in flight. [4] But the Syracusan generals, foreseeing what really happened, had dispatched the troops in the city against the strongholds of the Athenians, which were filled with money and naval supplies as well as every other kind of equipment; when the Syracusans found the strongholds guarded by a totally inadequate number, they seized them, and slew many of those who came up from the sea to their defence. [5] And since a great uproar arose about the forts and the camp, the Athenians who were engaged in the sea-battle turned about in dismay and fled toward the last remaining fort. The Syracusans pursued them without order, but the Athenians, when they saw themselves unable to find safety on land because the Syracusans controlled two forts, were forced to turn about and renew the sea-battle. [6] And since the Syracusans had broken their battle order and had become scattered in the pursuit, the Athenians, attacking with their ships in a body, sank eleven triremes and pursued the rest as far as the island.24 When the fight was ended, each side set up a trophy, the Athenians for the sea-battle and the Syracusans for their successes on land.

After the sea-battle had ended in the manner we have described, the Athenians, learning that the fleet under Demosthenes would arrive within a few days, decided to run no more risks before that force should join them, whereas the Syracusans, on the contrary, wishing to reach a final decision before the arrival of Demosthenes and his army, kept sailing out every day against the ships of the Athenians and continuing the fight. [2] And when Ariston the Corinthian pilot advised them to make the prows of their ships shorter and lower, the Syracusans followed his advice and for that reason enjoyed great advantage in the fighting which followed. [3] For the Attic triremes were built with weaker and high prows, and for this reason it followed that, when they rammed, they damaged only the parts of a ship that extended above the water, so that the enemy suffered no great damage; whereas the ships of the Syracusans, built as they were with the structure about the prow strong and low, would often, as they delivered their ramming blows, sink with one shock the triremes of the Athenians.25 [4]

Now day after day the Syracusans attacked the camp of the enemy both by land and by sea, but to no effect, since the Athenians made no move; but when some of the captains of triremes, being no longer able to endure the scorn of the Syracusans, put out against the enemy in the Great Harbour, a sea-battle commenced in which all the triremes joined. [5] Now though the Athenians had fast-sailing triremes and enjoyed the advantage from their long experience at sea as well as from the skill of their pilots, yet their superiority in these respects brought them no return since the sea-battle was in a narrow area; and the Syracusans, engaging at close quarters and giving the enemy no opportunity to turn about to ram, not only cast spears at the soldiers on the decks, but also, by hurling stones, forced them to leave the prows, and in many cases simply by ramming a ship that met them and then boarding the enemy vessel they made it a land-battle on the ship's deck. [6] The Athenians, being pressed upon from every quarter, turned to flight; and the Syracusans, pressing in pursuit, not only sank seven triremes but made a large number unfit for use.

At the moment when the hopes of the Syracusans had raised their spirits high because of their victory over the enemy both by land and by sea, Eurymedon and Demosthenes arrived, having sailed there from Athens with a great force and gathered on the way allied troops from the Thurians and Messapians. [2] They brought more than eighty triremes and five thousand soldiers, excluding the crews; and they also conveyed on merchant vessels arms and money as well as siege machines and every other kind of equipment. As a result the hopes of the Syracusans were dashed again, since they believed that they could not now readily find the means to bring themselves up to equality with the enemy. [3]

Demosthenes persuaded his fellow commanders to assault Epipolae, for it was impossible by any other means to wall off the city, and taking ten thousand hoplites and as many more light-armed troops, he attacked the Syracusans by night. Since the assault had not been expected, they overpowered some forts, and breaking into the fortifications of Epipole threw down a part of the wall. [4] But when the Syracusans ran together to the scene from every quarter and Hermocrates also came to the aid with the picked troops, the Athenians were forced out and, it being night, because of their unfamiliarity with the region were scattered some to one place and others to another. [5] The Syracusans and their allies, pursuing after them, slew two thousand five hundred of the enemy, wounded not a few, and captured much armour. [6] And after the battle the Syracusans dispatched Sicanus, one of their generals, with twelve26 triremes to the other cities, both to announce the victory to the allies and to ask them for aid.

The Athenians, now that their affairs had taken a turn for the worse and a wave of pestilence had struck the camp because the region round about it was marshy, counselled together how they should deal with the situation. [2] Demosthenes thought that they should sail back to Athens with all speed, stating that to risk their lives against the Lacedaemonians in defence of their fatherland was preferable to settling down on Sicily and accomplishing nothing worth while; but Nicias said that they ought not to abandon the siege in so disgraceful a fashion, while they were well supplied with triremes, soldiers, and funds; furthermore, he added, if they should make peace with the Syracusans without the approval of the Athenian people and sail back to their country, peril would attend them from the men who make it their practice to bring false charges against their generals. [3] Of the participants in the council some agreed with Demosthenes on putting to sea, but others expressed the same opinion as Nicias; and so they came to no clear decision and took no action. [4] And since help came to the Syracusans from the Siceli, Selinuntians, and Geloans, as well as from the Himeraeans and Camarinaeans, the Syracusans were the more emboldened, but the Athenians became apprehensive. Also, when the epidemic greatly increased, many of the soldiers were dying and all regretted that they had not set out upon their return voyage long since. [5] Consequently, since the multitude was in an uproar and all the others were eager to take to the ships, Nicias found himself compelled to yield on the matter of their returning home. And when the generals were agreed, the soldiers began gathering together their equipment, loading the triremes, and raising the yard-arms; and the generals issued orders to the multitude that at the signal not a man in the camp should be late, for he who lagged would be left behind. [6] But when they were about to sail on the following day, on the night of the day before, the moon was eclipsed.27 Consequently Nicias, who was not only by nature a superstitiously devout man but also cautious because of the epidemic in the camp, summoned the soothsayers. And when they declared that the departure must be postponed for the customary three days,28 Demosthenes and the others were also compelled, out of respect for the deity, to accede.

When the Syracusans learned from some deserters why the departure had been deferred, they manned all their triremes, seventy-four in number, and leading out their ground forces attacked the enemy both by land and by sea. [2] The Athenians, having manned eighty-six triremes, assigned to Eurymedon, the general, the command of the right wing, opposite to which was stationed the general of the Syracusans, Agatharchus; on the other wing Euthydemus had been stationed and opposite to him was Sicanus commanding the Syracusans; and in command of the centre of the line were Menander for the Athenians and Pythes the Corinthian for the Syracusans. [3] Although the Athenian line was the longer since they were engaging with a superior number of triremes, yet the very factor which they thought would work to their advantage was not the least in their undoing. For Eurymedon endeavoured to outflank the opposing wing; but when he had become detached from his line, the Syracusans turned to face him and he was cut off and forced into a bay called Dascon which was held by the Syracusans. [4] Being hemmed in as he was into a narrow place, he was forced to run ashore, where some man gave him a mortal wound and he lost his life, and seven of his ships were destroyed in this place. [5] The battle had now spread throughout both fleets, and when the word was passed along that the general had been slain and some ships lost, at first only those ships gave way which were nearest to those which had been destroyed, but later, as the Syracusans pressed forward and pushed the fight boldly because of the success they had won, the whole Athenian force was overpowered and compelled to turn in flight. [6] And since the pursuit turned toward the shallow part of the harbour, not a few triremes ran aground in the shoals. When this took place, Sicanus, the Syracusan general, straightway filling a merchant ship with faggots and pine-wood and pitch, set fire to the ships which were wallowing in the shoals. [7] But although they were put on fire, the Athenians not only quickly extinguished the flames but, finding no other means of safety, also vigorously fought off from their ships the men who were rushing against them; and the land forces ran to their aid along the beach on which the ships had run ashore. [8] And since they all withstood the attack with vigour, on land the Syracusans were turned back, but at sea they won the decision and sailed back to the city. The losses of the Syracusans were few, but of the Athenians not less than two thousand men and eighteen triremes.

The Syracusans, believing that the danger no longer was the losing of their city but that, far more, the contest had become one for the capture of the camp together with the enemy, blocked off the entrance to the harbour by the construction of a barrier. [2] For they moored at anchor both small vessels and triremes as well as merchant-ships, with iron chains between them, and to the vessels they built bridges of boards, completing the undertaking in three days. [3] The Athenians, seeing their hope of deliverance shut off in every direction, decided to man all their triremes and put on them their best land troops, and thus, by means both of the multitude of their ships and of the desperation of the men who would be fighting for their lives, eventually to strike terror into the Syracusans. [4] Consequently they put on board the officers and choicest troops from the whole army, manning in this way one hundred and fifteen triremes, and the other soldiers they stationed on land along the beach. The Syracusans drew up their infantry before the city, and fully manned seventy-four triremes; and the triremes were attended by free boys on small boats, who were in years below manhood and were fighting at the side of their fathers. [5] And the walls about the harbour and every high place in the city were crowded with people; for wives and maidens and all who, because of age, could not render the service war demands, since the whole war was coming to its decision, were eyeing the battle with the greatest anguish of spirit.

At this time Nicias, the general of the Athenians, as he surveyed the ships and measured the magnitude of the struggle, could not remain at his station on shore, but leaving the land troops he boarded a boat and passed along the line of the Athenian triremes. Calling each captain by name and stretching forth his hands, he implored them all, now if ever before, to grasp the only hope left to them, for on the valour of those who were about to join battle at sea depended the preservation both of themselves, every man of them, and of their fatherland. [2] Those who were fathers of children he reminded of their sons; those who were sons of distinguished fathers he exhorted not to bring disgrace upon the valorous deeds of their ancestors; those who had been honoured by their fellow citizens he urged to show themselves worthy of their crowns; and all of them he reminded of the trophies erected at Salamis and begged them not to bring to disrepute the far-famed glory of their fatherland nor surrender themselves like slaves to the Syracusans. [3]

After Nicias had spoken to this effect, he returned to his station, and the men of the fleet advanced singing the paean and broke through the barrier of boats before the enemy could prevent them. But the Syracusans, putting quickly out to sea, formed their triremes in battle order and coming to grips with the enemy forced them to withdraw from the barrier of boats and fight a pitched battle. [4] And as the ships backed water, some toward the beach, others toward the middle of the harbour, and still others in the direction of the walls, all the triremes were quickly separated from each other, and after they had got clear of the boom across its entrance the harbour was full of ships fighting in small groups. [5] Thereupon both sides fought with abandon for the victory. The Athenians, cheered by the multitude of their ships and seeing no other hope of safety, carried on the fight boldly and faced gallantly their death in battle, and the Syracusans, with their parents and children as spectators of the struggle, vied with one another, each man wishing the victory to come to his country through his own efforts.

Consequently many leaped on the prows of the hostile ships, when their own had been damaged by another, and were isolated in the midst of their enemies. In some cases they dropped grappling-irons29 and forced their adversaries to fight a land-battle on their ships. [2] Often men whose own ships had been shattered leaped on their opponents' vessels, and by slaying the defenders or pushing them into the sea became masters of their triremes. In a word, over the entire harbour came the crash of ship striking ship and the cry of desperately struggling men slaying and being slain. [3] For when a ship had been intercepted by several triremes and struck by their beaks from every direction, the water would pour in and it would be swallowed together with the entire crew beneath the sea. Some who would be swimming away after their ship had been sunk would be wounded by arrows or slain by the blows of spears. [4] The pilots, as they saw the confusion of the battle, every spot full of uproar, and often a number of ships converging upon a single one, did not know what signal to give, since the same orders were not suitable to all situations, nor was it possible, because of the multitude of missiles, for the oarsmen to keep their eyes upon the men who gave them their orders. [5] In short, not a man could hear any of the commands amid the shattering of boats and the sweeping off of oars,30 as well as amid the uproar of the men in combat on the ships and of their zealous comrades on land. [6] For of the entire beach a part was held by the Athenian infantry and a part by the Syracusans, so that at times the men fighting the sea-battle had as helpers, when along the shore, the soldiers lined up on the land. [7] The spectators on the walls, whenever they saw their own fighters winning, would sing songs of victory, but when they saw them being vanquished, they would groan and with tears offer prayers to the gods. For now and then it happened that some Syracusan triremes would be destroyed along the walls and their crews slain before the eyes of their kinsmen, and parents would witness the destruction of their children, sisters and wives the pitiable end of husbands and brothers.

For a long time, despite the many who were dying, the battle would not come to an end, since not even the men who were in desperate straits would dare flee to the land. For the Athenians would ask those who were breaking off the battle and turning to the land, “Do you think to sail to Athens by land?” and the Syracusan infantry would inquire of any who were bringing their ships towards them, “Why, when we wanted to go aboard the triremes, did you prevent us from engaging in the battle, if now you are betraying the fatherland?” “Was the reason you blocked the mouth of the harbour that, after preventing the enemy from getting out, you might yourselves flee to the beach?” “Since it is the lot of all men to die, what fairer death do you seek than dying for the fatherland, which you are disgracefully abandoning though you have it as a witness of your fighting!” [2] When the soldiers on the land hurled such upbraidings at the sailors who drew near, those who were fleeing for refuge to the beach would turn back again, even though their ships were shattered and they themselves were weighed down by their wounds. [3] But when the Athenians who were engaged near the city had been thrust back and began to flee, the Athenians next in line gave way from time to time and gradually the whole host took to flight. [4] Thereupon the Syracusans with great shouting pursued the ships to the land; and those Athenians who had not been slain out at sea, now that they had come to shallow water, leaped from the ships and fled to the land troops. [5] And the harbour was full of arms and wreckage of boats, since of the Attic ships sixty were lost and of the Syracusan eight were completely destroyed and sixteen badly damaged. The Syracusans drew up on the shore as many of their triremes as they could, and taking up the bodies of their citizens and allies who had died, honoured them with a public funeral.

The Athenians thronged to the tents of their commanders and begged the generals to take thought, not for the ships, but for the safety of themselves. Demosthenes, accordingly, declared that, since the barrier of boats had been broken, they should straight-way man the triremes, and he expressed the belief that, if they delivered an unexpected attack, they would easily succeed in their design.31 [2] But Nicias advised that they leave the ships behind and withdraw through the interior to the cities which were their allies. This plan was agreed to by all, and they burned some of the ships and made preparations for the retreat. [3]

When it was evident that the Athenians were going to withdraw during the night, Hermocrates advised the Syracusans to lead forth their entire army in the night and seize all the roads beforehand. [4] And when the generals would not agree to this, both because many of the soldiers were wounded and because all of them were worn-out in body from the fighting, he sent some of the horsemen to the camp of the Athenians to tell them that the Syracusans had already dispatched men to seize in advance the roads and the most important positions. [5] It was already night when the horsemen carried out these orders, and the Athenians, believing that it was men from Leontini who out of goodwill had brought them the word, were not a little disturbed and postponed the departure. If they had not been deceived by this trick, they would have got safely away. [6] The Syracusans at daybreak dispatched the soldiers who were to seize in advance the narrow passes in the roads. And the Athenian generals, dividing the soldiers into two bodies, put the pack-animals and the sick and injured in the centre and stationed those who were in condition to fight in the van and the rear, and then set out for Catane, Demosthenes commanding one group and Nicias the other.

The Syracusans took in tow the fifty ships left behind32 and brought them to the city, and then, taking off all the crews of their triremes and providing them with arms, they followed after the Athenians with their entire armament, harassing them and hindering their forward progress. [2] For three days following close on their heels and encompassing them on all sides they prevented them from taking a direct road toward Catane, their ally; instead they compelled them to retrace their steps through the plain of Elorium, and surrounding them at the Asinarus River, slew eighteen thousand and took captive seven thousand, among whom were also the generals Demosthenes and Nicias. The remainder were seized as their plunder by the soldiers33; [3] for the Athenians, since their escape was blocked in every direction, were obliged to surrender their weapons and their persons to the enemy. After this had taken place, the Syracusans set up two trophies, nailing to each of them the arms of a general, and turned back to the city. [4]

Now at that time the whole city of Syracuse offered sacrifices to the gods, and on the next day, after the Assembly had gathered, they considered what disposition they should make of the captives. A man named Diocles, who was a most notable leader of the populace, declared his opinion that the Athenian generals should be put to death under torture and the other prisoners should for the present all be thrown into the quarries; but that later the allies of the Athenians should be sold as booty and the Athenians should labour as prisoners under guard, receiving two cotyls34 of barley meal. [5] When this motion had been read, Hermocrates took the floor and endeavoured to show that a fairer thing than victory is to bear the victory with moderation.35 [6] But when the people shouted their disapproval and would not allow him to continue, a man named Nicolaus, who had lost two sons in the war, made his way, supported by his slaves because of his age, to the platform. When the people saw him, they stopped shouting, believing that he would denounce the prisoners. As soon, then, as there was silence, the old man began to speak.

“Of the misfortunes of the war, men of Syracuse, I have shared in a part, and not the least; for being the father of two sons, I sent them into the struggle on behalf of the fatherland, and I received back, in place of them, a message which announced their death. [2] Therefore, as I miss their companionship each day and call to mind once more that they are dead, I deem them happy, but pity my own lot, believing myself to be the most unfortunate of men. [3] For they, having expended for the salvation of their fatherland the death which mankind owes to Nature, have left behind them deathless renown for themselves, whereas I, bereft at the end of my days of those who were to minister to my old age, bear a twofold sorrow, in that it is both the children of my own body and their valour that I miss. [4] For the more gallant their death, the more poignant the memory of themselves they have left behind. I have good reason, then, for hating the Athenians, since it is because of them that I am being guided here, not by my own sons, but, as you can see, by slaves. [5] Now if I perceived, men of Syracuse, that the matter under discussion was merely a decision affecting the Athenians, I with good reason, both because of the misfortunes of our country, shared by all, and because of my personal afflictions, should have dealt bitterly with them; but since, along with consideration of the pity which is shown to unfortunates, the question at issue concerns both the good of the State and the fame of the people of the Syracusans which will be spread abroad to all mankind, I shall direct my proposal solely to the question of expediency.

“The people of the Athenians have received a punishment their own folly deserved, first of all from the hands of the gods and then from us whom they had wronged. [2] Good it is indeed that the deity involves in unexpected disasters those who begin an unjust war and do not bear their own superiority as men should. [3] For who could have expected that the Athenians, who had removed ten thousand talents36 from Delos to Athens and had dispatched to Sicily two hundred triremes and more than forty thousand men to fight, would ever suffer disasters of such magnitude? for from the preparations they made on such a scale not a ship, not a man has returned home, so that not even a survivor is left to carry to them word of the disaster. [4] Knowing, therefore, men of Syracuse, that the arrogant are hated among gods and men, do you, humbling yourselves before Fortune, commit no act that is beyond man's powers. What nobility is there in slaying the man who lies at your feet? What glory is there in wreaking vengeance on him? He who maintains his savagery unalterable amid human misfortunes also fails to take proper account37 of the common weakness of mankind. [5] For no man is so wise that his strength can prevail over Fortune, which of its nature finds delight in the sufferings of men and works swift changes in prosperity.

“Some, perhaps, will say, 'They have committed a wrong, and we have the power to punish them.' [6] But have you, then, not inflicted a many times greater punishment on the Athenian people, and are you not satisfied with your chastisement of the prisoners? For they have surrendered themselves together with their arms, trusting in the reasonableness of their conquerors; it is, therefore, not seemly that they should be cheated of our expected humaneness. [7] For those who maintained unalterable their enmity toward us have died fighting, but these who delivered themselves into our hands have become suppliants, no longer enemies. For those who in battle deliver their persons into the hands of their opponents do so in the hope of saving their lives; and should the men who have shown this trust receive so severe a punishment, though the victims will accept their misfortune, yet the punishers would be called hard-hearted. [8] But those who lay claim to leadership, men of Syracuse, should not strive to make themselves strong in arms so much as they should show themselves reasonable in their character.

“The fact is that subject peoples bide their time against those who dominate them by fear and, because of their hatred, retaliate upon them, but they steadfastly cherish those who exercise their leadership humanely and thereby always aid them in strengthening their supremacy. What destroyed the kingdom of the Medes? Their brutality toward the weaker. [2] For after the Persians revolted from them, their kingdom was attacked by most of the nations also. Else how did Cyrus38 rise from private citizen to the kingship over all of Asia? By his considerate treatment of the conquered. When, for example, he took King Croesus captive, far from doing him any injustice he actually became his benefactor; and in much the same way did he also deal with all the other kings as well as peoples. [3] As a consequence, when the fame of his clemency had been spread abroad to every region, all the inhabitants of Asia vied with one another in entering into alliance with the king. [4]

“But why do I speak of things distant in both place and time? In this our city, not long since, Gelon39 rose from private citizen40 to be lord of the whole of Sicily, the cities willingly putting themselves under his authority; for the fairness of the man, combined with his sympathy for the unfortunate, drew all men to him. [5] And since from those times our city has laid claim to the leadership in Sicily, let us not bring into disrepute the fair name our ancestors won nor show ourselves brutal and implacable toward human misfortune. Indeed it is not fitting to give envy an occasion to criticize us by saying that we make an unworthy use of our good fortune; for it is a fine thing to have those who will grieve with us when Fortune is adverse and rejoice in turn at our successes. [6] The advantages which are won in arms are often determined by Fortune and opportunity, but clemency amid constant success is a distinctive mark of the virtue of men whose affairs prosper. Do not, therefore, begrudge our country the opportunity of being acclaimed by all mankind, because it has surpassed the Athenians not only in feats of arms but also in humanity. [7] For it will be manifest that the people who vaunt their superiority to all others in civilization have received by our kindness all consideration, and they who were the first to raise an altar to Mercy41 will find that mercy in the city of the Syracusans. [8] From this it will be clear to all that they suffered a just defeat and we enjoyed a deserved success, if it so be that, although they sought to wrong men who had treated with kindness even their foes, we, on the contrary, defeated men who ventured treacherously to attack a people which shows mercy even to its bitterest enemies. And so the Athenians would not only stand accused by all the world, but even they themselves would condemn themselves, that they had undertaken to wrong such men.

“A fine thing it is, men of Syracuse, to take the lead in establishing a friendship and, by showing mercy to the unfortunate, to make up the quarrel. For goodwill toward our friends should be kept imperishable, but hatred toward our enemies perishable, since by this practice it will come about that one's allies increase in number and one's enemies decrease. [2] But for us to maintain the quarrel forever and to pass it on to children's children is neither kindly nor safe; since it sometimes happens that those who appear to be more powerful turn out to be weaker by the decision of a moment than their former subjects. [3] And a witness to this is the war which has just now ceased: The men who came here to lay siege to the city and, by means of their superior power, threw a wall about it have by a change in fortune become captives, as you can see. It is a fine thing, therefore, by showing ourselves lenient amid the misfortunes of other men, to have reserved for us the hope of mercy from all men, in case some ill befall us of such as come to mortal men. For many are the unexpected things life holds—civic strifes, robberies, wars, amid which one may not easily avoid the peril, being but human. [4] Consequently, if we shall exclude the thought of mercy for the defeated, we shall be setting up, for all time to come, a harsh law against ourselves. For it is impossible that men who have shown no compassion for others should themselves ever receive humane treatment at the hands of another and that men who have outraged others should be treated indulgently, or that we, after murdering so many men contrary to the traditions of the Greeks, should in the reversals which attend life appeal to the usages common to all mankind. [5] For what Greek has ever judged that those who have surrendered themselves and put their trust in the kindness of their conquerors are deserving of implacable punishment? or who has ever held mercy less potent than cruelty, precaution than rashness?

“All men sturdily oppose the enemy which is lined up for battle but fall back when he has surrendered, wearing down the hardihood of the former and showing pity for the misfortune of the latter. For our ardour is broken whenever the former enemy, having by a change of fortune become a suppliant, submits to suffer whatever suits the pleasure of his conquerors. [2] And the spirits of civilized men are gripped, I believe, most perhaps by mercy, because of the sympathy which nature has planted in all. The Athenians, for example, although in the Peloponnesian War they had blockaded many Lacedaemonians on the island of Sphacteria42 and taken them captive, released them to the Spartans on payment of ransom. [3] On another occasion the Lacedaemonians, when they had taken prisoner many of the Athenians and their allies, disposed of them in the same manner. And in so doing they both acted nobly. For hatred should exist between Greeks only until victory has been won and punishment only until the enemy has been overcome. [4] And whoever goes farther and wreaks vengeance upon the vanquished who flees for refuge to the leniency of his conqueror is no longer punishing his enemy but, far more, is guilty of an offence against human weakness. [5] For against harshness such as this one may mention the adages of the wise men of old: 'O man, be not high-spirited'; 'Know thyself'; 'Observe how Fortune is lord of all.' For what reason did the ancestors of all the Greeks ordain that the trophies set up in celebrating victories in war should be made, not of stone, but of any wood at hand? [6] Was it not in order that the memorials of the enmity, lasting as they would for a brief time, should quickly disappear? Speaking generally, if you wish to establish the quarrel for all time, know that in doing so you are treating with disdain human weakness; for a single moment, a slight turn of Fortune, often brings low the arrogant.

“If, as is likely, you will make an end of the war, what better time will you find than the present, in which you will make your humane treatment of the prostrate the occasion for friendship? For do not assume that the Athenian people have become completely exhausted by their disaster in Sicily, seeing that they hold sway over practically all the islands of Greece and retain the supremacy over the coasts of both Europe and Asia. [2] Indeed once before, after losing three hundred triremes together with their crews in Egypt,43 they compelled the King,44 who seemed to hold the upper hand, to accept ignominious terms of peace, and again, when their city had been razed to the ground by Xerxes, after a short time they defeated him also and won for themselves the leadership of Greece. [3] For that city has a clever way, in the midst of the greatest misfortunes, of making the greatest growth in power and of never adopting a policy that is mean-spirited. It would be a fine thing, therefore, instead of increasing their enmity, to have the Athenians as allies after sparing the prisoners. [4] For if we put them to death we shall merely be indulging our anger, sating a fruitless passion, whereas if we put them under guard, we shall have the gratitude of the men we succoured and the approbation of all other peoples.

“Yes, some will answer, but there are Greeks who have executed their prisoners. What of it? If praise accrues to them from that deed, let us nevertheless imitate those who have paid heed to their reputation; but if we are the first by whom they are accused, let us not ourselves commit the same crimes as those who by their own admission have sinned. [2] So long as the men who entrusted their lives to our good faith have suffered no irremediable punishment, all men will justly censure the Athenian people; but if they hear that, contrary to the generally accepted customs of mankind, faith has been broken with the captives, they will shift their accusation against us. For in truth, if it can be said of any other people, the prestige of the city of the Athenians deserves our reverence, and we may well return to them our gratitude for the benefactions they have bestowed upon man. [3] For it is they who first gave to the Greeks a share in a food45 gained by cultivation of the soil, which, though they had received it from the gods46 for their exclusive use, they made available to all. They it was who discovered laws, by the application of which the manner of men's living has advanced from the savage and unjust existence to a civilized and just society. It was they who first, by sparing the lives of any who sought refuge with them, contrived to cause the laws on suppliants to prevail among all men, and since they were the authors of these laws, we should not deprive them of their protection. So much to all of you; but some among you I shall remind of the claims of human kindness.

“All you who in that city have participated in its eloquence and learning, show mercy to men who offer their country as a school for the common use of mankind; and do all you, who have taken part in the most holy Mysteries,47 save the lives of those who initiated you, some by way of showing gratitude for kindly services already received and others, who look forward to partaking of them, not in anger depriving yourselves of that hope. [2] For what place is there to which foreigners may resort for a liberal education once the city of the Athenians has been destroyed? Brief is the hatred aroused by the wrong they have committed, but important and many are their accomplishments which claim goodwill.

“But apart from consideration for the city, one might, in examining the prisoners individually, find those who would justly receive mercy. For the allies of Athens, being under constraint because of the superior power of their rulers, were compelled to join the expedition. [3] It follows, then, that if it is just to take vengeance upon those who have done wrong from design, it would be fitting to treat as worthy of leniency those who sin against their will. What shall I say of Nicias, who from the first, after initiating his policy in the interest of the Syracusans, was the only man to oppose the expedition against Sicily, and who has continually looked after the interests of Syracusans resident in Athens and served as their proxenus?48 [4] It would be extraordinary indeed that Nicias, who had sponsored our cause as a politician in Athens, should be punished, and that he should not be accorded humane treatment because of the goodwill he has shown toward us but because of his service in business of his country should meet with implacable punishment, and that Alcibiades, the man who brought on the war against the Syracusans, should escape his deserved punishment both from us and from the Athenians, whereas he who has proved himself by common consent the most humane among Athenians should not even meet with the mercy accorded to all men. [5] Therefore for my part, when I consider the change in his circumstances, I pity his lot. For formerly, as one of the most distinguished of all Greeks and applauded for his knightly character, he was one to be deemed happy and was admired in every city; [6] but now, with hands bound behind his back in a tunic squalid in appearance, he has experienced the piteous state of captivity, as if Fortune wished to give, in the life of this man, an example of her power. The prosperity which Fortune gives it behooves us to bear as human beings should and not show barbarous savagery toward men of our own race.”

Such were the arguments used by Nicolaus in addressing the people of Syracuse and before he ceased he had won the sympathy of his hearers. But the Laconian Gylippus,49 who still maintained implacable his hatred of Athenians, mounting the rostrum began his argument with that topic. [2] “I am greatly surprised, men of Syracuse, to see that you so quickly, on a matter in which you have suffered grievously by deeds, are moved to change your minds by words.50 For if you who, in order to save your city from desolation, faced peril against men who came to destroy your country, have become relaxed in temper, why, then, should we who have suffered no wrong exert ourselves? [3] Do you in heaven's name, men of Syracuse, grant me pardon as I set forth my counsel with all frankness; for, being a Spartan, I have also a Spartan's manner of speech. And first of all one might inquire how Nicolaus can say, 'Show mercy to the Athenians,' who have rendered his old age piteous because childless, and how, coming before the Assembly in mourner's dress, he can weep and say that you should show pity to the murderers of his own children. [4] For that man is no longer equitable who ceases to think of his nearest of kin after their death but elects to save the lives of his bitterest foes. Why how many of you who are assembled here have mourned sons who have been slain in the war?” (Many of the audience at least raised a great outcry.) [5] And Gylippus interrupting it said, “Do you see, Nicolaus, those who by their outcry proclaim their misfortune? And how many of you look in vain for brothers or relatives or friends whom you have lost?” (A far greater number shouted agreement.) [6] Gylippus then continued: “Do you observe, Nicolaus, the multitude of those who have suffered because of Athenians? All these, though guilty of no wrong done to Athenians, have been robbed of their nearest kinsmen, and they are bound to hate the Athenians in as great a measure as they have loved their own.

“Will it not be strange, men of Syracuse, if those who have perished chose death on your behalf of their own accord, but that you on their behalf shall not exact punishment from even your bitterest enemies? and that, though you praise those who gave their very lives to preserve their country's freedom, you shall make it a matter of greater moment to preserve the lives of the murderers than to safeguard the honour of these men? [2] You have voted to embellish at public expense the tombs of the departed; yet what fairer embellishment will you find than the punishing of their slayers? Unless, by Zeus, it would be by enrolling them among your citizens, you should wish to leave living trophies of the departed. [3] But, it may be said, they have renounced the name of enemies and have become suppliants. On what grounds, pray, would this humane treatment have been accorded them? For those who first established our ordinances regarding these matters prescribed mercy for the unfortunates, but punishment for those who from sheer depravity practise iniquity. [4] In which category, now, are we to place the prisoners? In that of unfortunates? Why, what Fortune compelled them, who had suffered no wrong, to make war on Syracusans, to abandon peace, which all men praise, and to come here with the purpose of destroying your city? [5] Consequently let those who of their free will chose an unjust war bear its hard consequences with courage, and let not those who, if they had conquered, would have kept implacable their cruelty toward you, now that they have been thwarted in their purpose, beg off from punishment by appealing to the human kindness which is due to the prayer of a suppliant. [6] And if they stand convicted of having suffered their serious defeats because of wickedness and greed, let them not blame Fortune for them nor summon to their aid the name of 'supplication.' For that term is reserved among men for those who are pure in heart but have found Fortune unkind. [7] These men, however, whose lives have been crammed with every malefaction, have left for themselves no place in the world which will admit them to mercy and refuge.

“For what utterly shameful deed have they not planned, what deed most shocking have they not perpetrated? It is a distinctive mark of greed that a man, not being content with his own gifts of Fortune, covets those which are distant and belong to someone else; and this these men have done. For though the Athenians were the most prosperous of all the Greeks, dissatisfied with their felicity as if it were a heavy burden, they longed to portion out to colonists Sicily, separated as it was from them by so great an expanse of sea, after they had sold the inhabitants into slavery. [2] It is a terrible thing to begin a war, when one has not first been wronged; yet that is what they did. For though they were your friends until then, on a sudden, without warning, with an armament of such strength they laid siege to Syracusans. [3] It is characteristic of arrogant men, anticipating the decision of Fortune, to decree the punishment of peoples not yet conquered; and this also they have not left undone. For before the Athenians ever set foot on Sicily they approved a resolution to sell into slavery the citizens of Syracuse and Selinus and to compel the remaining Sicilians to pay tribute. When there is to be found in the same men greediness, treachery, arrogance, what person in his right mind would show them mercy? [4] How then, mark you, did the Athenians treat the Mitylenaeans? Why after conquering them, although the Mitylenaeans had no intention of doing them any wrong but only desired their freedom, they voted to put to the sword all the inhabitants of the city.51 [5] A cruel and barbarous deed. And that crime too they committed against Greeks, against allies, against men who had often been their benefactors. Let them not now complain if, after having done such things to the rest of mankind, they themselves shall receive like punishment; for it is altogether just that a man should accept his lot without complaint when he is himself affected by the law he has laid down for others. [6] What shall I say also of the Melians,52 whom they reduced by siege and slew from the youth upward? and of the Scionaeans,53 who, although their kinsmen, shared the same fate as the Melians? Consequently two peoples who had fallen foul of Attic fury had left not even any of their number to perform the rites over the bodies of their dead. [7] It is not Scythians who committed such deeds, but the people who claim to excel in love of mankind have by their decrees utterly destroyed these cities. Consider now what they would have done if they had sacked the city of the Syracusans; for men who dealt with their kinsmen with such savagery would have devised a harsher punishment for a people with whom they had not ties of blood.

“There is, therefore, no just measure of mercy in store for them to call upon, since as for the use of it on the occasion of their own mishaps they themselves have destroyed it. Where is it worth their while to flee for safety? To gods, whom they have chosen to rob of their traditional honours? To men, whom they have visited only to enslave? Do they call upon Demeter and Core and their Mysteries now that they have laid waste the sacred island54 of these goddesses? [2] Yes, some will say, but not the whole people of the Athenians are to blame, but only Alcibiades who advised this expedition. We shall find, however, that in most cases their advisers pay every attention to the wishes of their audience, so that the voter suggests to the speaker words that suit his own purpose. For the speaker is not the master of the multitude, but the people, by adopting measures that are honest, train the orator to propose what is best. [3] If we shall pardon men guilty of irrevocable injustices when they lay the responsibility upon their advisers, we shall indeed be providing the wicked with an easy defence! It is clear that nothing in the world could be more unjust than that, while in the case of benefactions it is not the advisers but the people who receive the thanks of the recipients, in the matter of injustices the punishment is passed on to the speakers. [4]

“Yet some have lost their reasoning powers to such a degree as to assert that it is Alcibiades, over whom we have no power, who should be punished, but that we should release the prisoners, who are being led to their deserved punishment, and thus make it known to the world that the people of the Syracusans have no righteous indignation against base men. [5] But if the advocates of the war have in truth been the cause of it, let the people blame the speakers for the consequences of their deception, but you will with justice punish the people for the wrongs which you have suffered. And, speaking generally, if they committed the wrongs with full knowledge that they were so doing, because of their very intention they deserve punishment, but if they entered the war without a considered plan, even so they should not be let off, in order that they may not grow accustomed to act offhand in matters which affect the lives of other men. For it is not just that the ignorance of the Athenians should bring destruction to Syracusans or that in a case where the crime is irremediable, the criminals should retain a vestige of defence.

“Yet, by Zeus, someone will say, Nicias took the part of the Syracusans in the debate and was the only one who advised against making war. As for what he said there we know it by hearsay, but what has been done here we have witnessed with our own eyes. [2] For the man who there opposed the expedition was here commander of the armament; he who takes the part of Syracusans in debate walled off your city; and he who is humanely disposed toward you, when Demosthenes and all the others wished to break off the siege, alone compelled them to remain and continue the war. Therefore for my part I do not believe that his words should have greater weight with you than his deeds, report than experience, things unseen than things that have been witnessed by all. [3]

“Yet, by Zeus, someone will say, it is a good thing not to make our enmity eternal. Very well, then, after the punishment of the malefactors you will, if you so agree, put an end to your enmity in a suitable manner. For it is not just that men who treat their captives like slaves when they are the victors, should, when they in turn are the vanquished, be objects of pity as if they had done no wrong. And though they will have been freed of paying the penalty for their deeds, by specious pleas they will remember the friendship only so long as it is to their advantage. [4] For I omit to mention the fact that, if you take this course, you will be wronging not only many others but also the Lacedaemonians, who for your sake both entered upon the war over there and also sent you aid here; for they might have been well content to maintain peace and look on while Sicily was being laid waste.55 [5] Consequently, if you free the prisoners and thus enter into friendly relations with Athens, you will be looked upon as traitors to your allies and, when it is in your power to weaken the common enemy, by releasing so great a number of soldiers you will make our enemy again formidable. For I could never bring myself to believe that Athenians, after getting themselves involved in so bitter an enmity, will keep the friendly relation unbroken; on the contrary, while they are weak they will feign goodwill, but when they have recovered their strength, they will carry their original purpose to completion. [6] I therefore adjure you all, in the name of Zeus and all the gods, not to save the lives of your enemies, not to leave your allies in the lurch, not again for a second time to bring peril upon your country. You yourselves, men of Syracuse, if you let these men go and then some ill befalls you, will leave for yourselves not even a respectable defence.”56

After the Laconian had spoken to this effect, the multitude suddenly changed its mind and approved the proposal of Diocles.57 Consequently the generals58 and the allies59 were forthwith put to death, and the Athenians were consigned to the quarries; and at a later time such of them as possessed a better education were rescued from there by the younger men and thus got away safe, but practically all the rest ended their lives pitiably amid the hardships of this place of confinement. [2]

After the termination of the war Diocles set up the laws for the Syracusans, and it came to pass that this man experienced a strange reversal of fortune. For having become implacable in fixing penalties and severe in punishing offenders, he wrote in the laws that, if any man should appear in the market-place carrying a weapon, the punishment should be death, and he made no allowance for either ignorance or any other circumstance. [3] And when word had been received that enemies were in the land, he set forth carrying a sword; but since sudden civil strife had arisen and there was uproar in the market-place, he thoughtlessly entered the market-place with the sword. And when one of the ordinary citizens, noticing this, said that he himself was annulling his own laws, he cried out, “Not so, by Zeus, I will even uphold them.” And drawing the sword he slew himself.60

These, then, were the events of this year. 61

When Callias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Publius Cornelius . . . Gaius Fabius, and among the Eleians the Ninety-second Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Exaenetus of Acragas won the “stadion.” In this year it came to pass that, after the Athenians had collapsed in Sicily, their supremacy was held in contempt; [2] for immediately the peoples of Chios, Samos, Byzantium, and many of the allies revolted to the Lacedaemonians. Consequently the Athenian people, being disheartened, of their own accord renounced the democracy, and choosing four hundred men they turned over to them the administration of the state. And the leaders of the oligarchy, after building a number of triremes, sent out forty of them together with generals.62 [3] Although these were at odds with one another, they sailed off to Oropus, for the enemy's triremes lay at anchor there. In the battle which followed the Lacedaemonians were victorious and captured twenty-two vessels. [4]

After the Syracusans had brought to an end the war with the Athenians, they honoured with the booty taken in the war the Lacedaemonians who had fought with them under the command of Gylippus, and they sent back with them to Lacedaemon, to aid them in the war against the Athenians, an allied force of thirty-five triremes under the command of Hermocrates, their foremost citizen. [5] And as for themselves, after gathering the spoil that accrued from the war, they embellished their temples with dedications and with arms taken from the enemy and honoured with the appropriate gifts those soldiers who had fought with distinction. [6] After this Diocles, who was the most influental among them of the leaders of the populace, persuaded the citizens to change their form of government so that the administration would be conducted by magistrates chosen by lot and that lawgivers also should be elected for organizing the polity and drafting new laws privately.

Consequently the Syracusans elected lawgivers from such of their citizens as excelled in judgement, the most distinguished of them being Diocles. For he so far excelled the rest in understanding and renown that, although the writing of the code was a task of all in common, they were called “The Laws of Diocles.” [2] And not only did the Syracusans admire this man during his lifetime, but also, when he died, they rendered him the honours accorded to heroes and built a temple in his honour at public expense—the one which was torn down by Dionysius at a later time when the walls of the city were being constructed.63 And this man was held in high esteem among the other Sicilian Greeks as well; [3] indeed many cities of the island continued to use his laws down to the time when the Sicilian Greeks as a body were granted Roman citizenship.64 Accordingly, when in later times laws were framed for the Syracusans by Cephalus65 in the time of Timoleon and by Polydorus in the time of King Hiero,66 they called neither one of these men a “lawgiver,” but rather an “interpreter of the lawgiver,” since men found the laws of Diocles, written as they were in an ancient style, difficult to understand. [4] Profound reflection is displayed in his legislation, the lawmaker showing himself to be a hater of evil, since he sets heavier penalties against all wrongdoers than any other legislator, just, in that more precisely than by any predecessor the punishment of each man is fixed according to his deserts, and both practical and widely experienced, in that he judges every complaint and every dispute, whether it concerns the state or the individual, to be deserving of a fixed penalty. He is also concise in his style and leaves much for the readers to reflect upon. [5] And the dramatic manner of his death67 bore witness to the uprightness and austerity of his soul.

Now these qualities of Diocles I have been moved to set forth in considerable detail by reason of the fact that most historians have rather slighted him in their treatises.

When the Athenians learned of the total destruction of their forces in Sicily, they were deeply distressed at the magnitude of the disaster. Yet they would not at all on that account abate their ardent aspiration for the supremacy, but set about both constructing more ships and providing themselves with funds wherewith they might contend to the last hope for the primacy. [2] Choosing four hundred men they put in their hands the supreme authority to direct the conduct of the war; for they assumed that an oligarchy was more suitable than a democracy in critical circumstances like these. [3] The events, however, did not turn out according to the judgement of those who held that opinion, but the Four Hundred conducted the war far less competently. For, although they dispatched forty ships, they sent along to command them two generals who were at odds with each other. Although, with the affairs of the Athenians at such low ebb, the emergency called for complete concord, the generals kept quarrelling with each other. [4] And finally they sailed to Oropus without preparation and met the Peloponnesians in a sea-battle; but since they made a wretched beginning of the battle and stood up to the fighting like churls, they lost twenty-two ships and barely got the rest safe over to Eretria. [5]

After these events had taken place, the allies of the Athenians, because of the defeats they had suffered in Sicily as well as the estranged relations of the commanders, revolted to the Lacedaemonians. And since Darius, the king of the Persians, was an ally of the Lacedaemonians, Pharnabazus, who had the military command of the regions bordering on the sea, supplied money to the Lacedaemonians; and he also summoned the three hundred triremes supplied by Phoenicia, having in mind to dispatch them to the aid of the Lacedaemonians.

Inasmuch as the Athenians had experienced setbacks so serious at one and the same time, everyone had assumed that the war was at an end; for no one expected that the Athenians could possibly endure such reverses any longer, even for a moment. However, events did not come to an end that tallied with the assumption of the majority, but on the contrary it came to pass, such was the superiority of the combatants, that the whole situation changed for the following reasons. [2]

Alcibiades, who was in exile from Athens, had for a time fought on the side of the Lacedaemonians and had rendered them great assistance in the war; for he was a most able orator and far the outstanding citizen in daring, and, besides, he was in high birth and wealth first among the Athenians. [3] Now since Alcibiades was eager to be allowed to return to his native city, he contrived every device whereby he could do the Athenians some good turn, and in particular at the crucial moments when the Athenians seemed doomed to utter defeat. [4] Accordingly, since he was on friendly terms with Pharnabazus, the satrap of Darius, and saw that he was on the point of sending three hundred ships to the support of the Lacedaemonians,68 he persuaded him to give up the undertaking; for he showed him that it would not be to the advantage of the King to make the Lacedaemonians too powerful. That would not, he said, help the Persians, and so a better policy would be to maintain a neutral attitude toward the combatants so long as they were equally matched, in order that they might continue their quarrel as long as possible. [5] Thereupon Pharnabazus, believing that Alcibiades was giving him good advice, sent the fleet back to Phoenicia. Now on that occasion Alcibiades deprived the Lacedaemonians of so great an allied force; and some time later, when he had been allowed to return to Athens and been given command of a military force, he defeated the Lacedaemonians in many battles and completely restored again the sunken fortunes of the Athenians. [6] But we shall discuss these matters in more detail in connection with the appropriate period of time, in order that our account may not by anticipation violate the natural order of events. 69

After the close of the year Theopompus was archon in Athens and the Romans elected in place of consuls four military tribunes, Tiberius Postumius, Gaius Cornelius, Gaius Valerius, and Caeso Fabius. At this time the Athenians dissolved the oligarchy of the Four Hundred and formed the constitution of the government from the citizens at large.70 [2] The author of all these changes was Theramenes, a man who was orderly in his manner of life and was reputed to surpass all others in judgement; for he was the only person to advise the recall from exile of Alcibiades, through whom the Athenians recovered themselves, and since he was the author of many other measures for the benefit of his country, he was the recipient of no small approbation. [3]

But these events took place at a little later time, and for the war the Athenians appointed Thrasyllus and Thrasybulus generals, who collected the fleet at Samos and trained the soldiers for battle at sea, giving them daily exercises. [4] But Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, was inactive for some time at Miletus, expecting the aid promised by Pharnabazus; and when he heard that three hundred triremes had arrived from Phoenicia, he was buoyed up in his hopes, believing that with so great a fleet he could destroy the empire of the Athenians. [5] But when a little later he learned from sundry persons that Pharnabazus had been won over by Alcibiades and had sent the fleet back to Phoenicia, he gave up the hopes he had placed in Pharnabazus, and by himself, after equipping both the ships brought from the Peloponnesus and those supplied by his allies from abroad, he dispatched Dorieus with thirteen ships to Rhodes, since he had learned that certain Rhodians were banding together for a revolution.— [6] The ships we have mentioned had recently been sent to the Lacedaemonians as an allied force by certain Greeks of Italy.—And Mindarus himself took all the other ships, numbering eighty-three, and set out for the Hellespont, since he had learned that the Athenian fleet was tarrying at Samos. [7] The moment the generals of the Athenians saw them sailing by, they put out to sea against them with sixty ships. But when the Lacedaemonians put in at Chios, the Athenian generals decided to sail on to Lesbos and there to gather triremes from their allies, in order that it should not turn out that the enemy surpassed them in number of ships.

Now the Athenians were engaged in gathering ships. But Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, setting out by night with his entire fleet, made in haste for the Hellespont and arrived on the second day at Sigeium.71 When the Athenians learned that the fleet had sailed by them, they did not wait for all the triremes of their allies, but after only three had been added to their number they set out in pursuit of the Lacedaemonians. [2] When they arrived at Sigeium, they found the fleet already departed, but three ships left behind they at once captured; after this they put in at Eleus72 and made preparations for the sea-battle. [3] The Lacedaemonians, seeing the enemy rehearsing for the battle, did likewise, spending five days in proving their ships and exercising their rowers; then they drew up the fleet for the battle, its strength being eighty-eight ships. Now the Lacedaemonians stationed their ships on the Asian side of the channel, while the Athenians lined up against them on the European side, being fewer in number but of superior training. [4] The Lacedaemonians put on their right wing the Syracusans, whose leader was Hermocrates, and the Peloponnesians themselves formed the whole left wing with Mindarus in command. For the Athenians Thrasyllus was stationed on the right wing and Thrasybulus on the left. At the outset both sides strove stubbornly for position in order that they might not have the current against them. [5] Consequently they kept sailing around each other for a long time, endeavouring to block off the straits and struggling for an advantageous position; for the battle took place between Abydus and Sestus73 and it so happened that the current was of no little hindrance where the strait was narrow. However, the pilots of the Athenian fleet, being far superior in experience, contributed greatly to the victory.

For although the Peloponnesians had the advantage in the number of their ships and the valour of their marines, the skill of the Athenian pilots rendered the superiority of their opponents of no effect. For whenever the Peloponnesians, with their ships in a body, would charge swiftly forward to ram, the pilots would manoeuvre their own ships so skilfully that their opponents were unable to strike them at any other spot but could only meet them bows on, ram against ram. [2] Consequently Mindarus, seeing that the force of the rams was proving ineffective, gave orders for his ships to come to grips in small groups, or one at a time. But not by this manoeuvre either, as it turned out, was the skill of the Athenian pilots rendered ineffective; on the contrary, cleverly avoiding the on-coming rams of the ships, they struck them on the side and damaged many. [3] And such a spirit of rivalry pervaded both forces that they would not confine the struggle to ramming tactics, but tangling ship with ship fought it out with the marines. Although they were hindered by the strength of the current from achieving great success, they continued the struggle for a considerable time, neither side being able to gain the victory. [4] While the fighting was thus equally balanced, there appeared beyond a cape twenty-five ships which had been dispatched to the Athenians from their allies. The Peloponnesians thereupon in alarm turned in flight toward Abydus, the Athenians clinging to them and pursuing them the more vigorously. [5]

Such was the end of the battle; and the Athenians captured eight ships of the Chians, five of the Corinthians, two of the Ambraciotes, and one each of the Syracusans, Pellenians, and Leucadians, while they themselves lost five ships, all of them, as it happened, having been sunk. [6] After this Thrasybulus set up a trophy on the cape where stands the memorial of Hecabe74 and sent messengers to Athens to carry word of the victory, and himself made his way to Cyzicus with the entire fleet. For before the sea-battle this city had revolted to Pharnabazus, the general of Darius, and to Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian commander. Finding the city unfortified the Athenians easily achieved their end, and after exacting money of the Cyziceni they sailed off to Sestus.

Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, after his flight to Abydus from the scene of his defeat repaired the ships that had been damaged and also sent the Spartan Epicles to the triremes at Euboea with orders to bring them with all speed. [2] When Epicles arrived at Euboea, he gathered the ships, which amounted to fifty, and hurriedly put out to sea; but when the triremes were off Mt. Athos there arose a storm of such fury that all the ships were lost and of their crews twelve men alone survived. [3] These facts are set forth by a dedication, as Ephorus states, which stands in the temple at Coroneia and bears the following inscription:“ These from the crews of fifty ships, escaping destruction,
Brought their bodies to land hard by Athos' sharp crags;
Only twelve, all the rest the yawning depth of the waters
Took to their death with their ships, meeting with terrible winds.
” [4]

At about the same time Alcibiades with thirteen triremes came by sea to the Athenians who were lying at Samos and had already heard that he had persuaded Pharnabazus not to come, as he had intended, with his three hundred ships to reinforce the Lacedaemonians. [5] And since the troops at Samos gave him a friendly welcome, he discussed with them the matter of his return from exile, offering promises to render many services to the fatherland; and in like manner he defended his own conduct and shed many tears over his own fortune, because he had been compelled by his enemies to give proof of his own valour at the expense of his native land.75

And since the soldiers heartily welcomed the offers of Alcibiades and sent messages to Athens regarding them, the people76 voted to dismiss the charges against Alcibiades and to give him a share in the command; for as they observed the efficiency of his daring and the fame he enjoyed among the Greeks, they assumed, and with good reason, that his adherence to them would add no little weight to their cause. [2] Moreover, Theramenes, who at the time enjoyed the leadership in the government and who, if anyone, had a reputation of sagacity, advised the people to recall Alcibiades. When word of this action was reported to Samos, Alcibiades added nine ships to the thirteen he already had, and sailing with them to Halicarnassus he exacted money from that city. [3] After this he sacked Meropis77 and returned to Samos with much plunder. And since a great amount of booty had been amassed, he divided the spoils among the soldiers at Samos and his own troops, thereby soon causing the recipients of his benefactions to be well disposed toward himself. [4]

About the same time the Antandrians,78 who were held by a garrison,79 sent to the Lacedaemonians for soldiers, with whose aid they expelled the garrison and thus made their country a free place to live in; for the Lacedaemonians, finding fault with Pharnabazus for the sending of the three hundred ships back to Phoenicia, gave their aid to the inhabitants of Antandrus. [5]

Of the historians, Thucydides ended his history,80 having included a period of twenty-two years in eight Books, although some divide it into nine81; and Xenophon and Theopompus have begun at the point where Thucydides left off. Xenophon embraced a period of forty-eight years, and Theopompus set forth the facts of Greek history for seventeen years and brings his account to an end with the sea-battle of Cnidus in twelve Books.82 [6]

Such was the state of affairs in Greece and Asia. The Romans were waging war with the Aequi and invaded their territory with a strong army; and investing the city named Bolae they took it by siege. 83

When the events of this year had come to an end, in Athens Glaucippus was archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Marcus Cornelius and Lucius Furius. At this time in Sicily the Aegestaeans, who had allied themselves with the Athenians against the Syracusans, had fallen into great fear at the conclusion of the war; for they expected, and with good reason, to pay the penalty to the Sicilian Greeks for the wrongs they had inflicted upon them. [2] And when the Selinuntians went to war with them over the land in dispute,84 they withdrew from it of their free will, being concerned lest the Syracusans should use this excuse to join the Selinuntians in the war and they should thereby run the risk of utterly destroying their country. [3] But when the Selinuntians proposed, quite apart from the territory in dispute, to carve off for themselves a large portion of the neighbouring territory, the inhabitants of Aegesta thereupon dispatched ambassadors to Carthage, asking for aid and putting their city in the hands of the Carthaginians. [4] When the envoys arrived and laid before the Senate the instructions the people had given them, the Carthaginians found themselves in no little quandary; for while they were eager to acquire a city so strategically situated, at the same time they stood in fear of the Syracusans, having just witnessed their defeat of the armaments of the Athenians. [5] But when Hannibal, their foremost citizen, also advised them to acquire the city, they replied to the ambassadors that they would come to their aid, and to supervise the undertaking, in case it should lead to war, they selected as general Hannibal, who at the time lawfully exercised sovereign powers.85 He was the grandson of Hamilcar, who fought in the war against Gelon and died at Himera,86 and the son of Gescon, who had been exiled because of his father's defeat and had ended his life in Selinus. [6]

Now Hannibal, who by nature was a hater of the Greeks and at the same time desired to wipe out the disgraces which had befallen his ancestors, was eager by his own efforts to achieve some advantage for his country. Hence, seeing that the Selinuntians were not satisfied with the cession of the territory in dispute, he dispatched ambassadors together with the Aegestaeans to the Syracusans, referring to them the decision of the dispute; and though ostensibly he pretended to be seeking that justice be done, in fact he believed that, after the Selinuntians refused to agree to arbitration, the Syracusans would not join them as allies. [7] Since the Selinuntians also dispatched ambassadors, refusing the arbitration and answering at length the ambassadors of the Carthaginians and Aegestaeans, in the end the Syracusans decided to vote to maintain their alliance with the Selinuntians and their state of peace with the Carthaginians.

After the return of their ambassadors the Carthaginians dispatched to the Aegestaeans five thousand Libyans and eight hundred Campanians. [2] These troops had been hired by the Chalcidians87 to aid the Athenians in the war against the Syracusans, and on their return after its disastrous conclusion they found no one to hire their services; but the Carthaginians purchased horses for them all, gave them high pay, and sent them to Aegesta. [3]

The Selinuntians, who were prosperous in those days and whose city was heavily populated, held the Aegestaeans in contempt. And at first, deploying in battle order, they laid waste the land which touched their border, since their armies were far superior, but after this, despising their foe, they scattered everywhere over the countryside. [4] The generals of the Aegestaeans, watching their opportunity, attacked them with the aid of the Carthaginians88 and Campanians. Since the attack was not expected, they easily put the Selinuntians to flight, killing about a thousand of the soldiers and capturing all their loot. And after the battle both sides straightway dispatched ambassadors, the Selinuntians to the Syracusans and the Aegestaeans to the Carthaginians, asking for help. [5] Both parties promised their assistance and the Carthaginian War thus had its beginning. The Carthaginians, foreseeing the magnitude of the war, entrusted the responsibility for the size of their armament to Hannibal as their general and enthusiastically rendered him every assistance. [6] And Hannibal during the summer and the following winter enlisted many mercenaries from Iberia and also enrolled not a few from among the citizens; he also visited Libya, choosing the stoutest men from every city, and he made ready ships, planning to convey the armies across with the opening of spring.

Such, then, was the state of affairs in Sicily.

In Greece Dorieus the Rhodian, the admiral of the triremes from Italy, after he had quelled the tumult in Rhodes,89 set sail for the Hellespont, being eager to join Mindarus; for the latter was lying at Abydus and collecting from every quarter the ships of the Peloponnesian alliance. [2] And when Dorieus was already in the neighbourhood of Sigeium in the Troad, the Athenians who were at Sestus, learning that he was sailing along the coast, put out against him with their ships, seventy-four in all. [3] Dorieus held to his course for a time in ignorance of what was happening; but when he observed the great strength of the fleet he was alarmed, and seeing no other way to save his force he put in at Dardanus. [4] Here he disembarked his soldiers and took over the troops who were guarding the city, and then he speedily got in a vast supply of missiles and stationed his soldiers both on the fore-parts of the ships and in advantageous positions on the land. [5] The Athenians, sailing in at full speed, set to work hauling the ships away from the shore, and they were wearing down the enemy, having crowded them on every side by their superior numbers. [6] When Mindarus, the Peloponnesian admiral, learned of the situation, he speedily put out from Abydus with his entire fleet and sailed to the Dardanian Promontory90 with eighty-four ships to the aid of the fleet of Dorieus; and the land army of Pharnabazus was also there, supporting the Lacedaemonians. [7]

When the fleets came near one another, both sides drew up the triremes for battle; Mindarus, who had ninety-seven ships, stationed the Syracusans on his left wing, while he himself took command of the right; as for the Athenians, Thrasybulus led the right wing and Thrasyllus the other. [8] After the forces had made ready in this fashion, their commanders raised the signal for battle and the trumpeters at a single word of command began to sound the attack; and since the rowers showed no lack of eagerness and the pilots managed their helms with skill, the contest which ensued was an amazing spectacle. [9] For whenever the triremes would drive forward to ram, at that moment the pilots, at just the critical instant, would turn their ships so effectively that the blows were made ram on. [10] As for the marines, whenever they would see their own ships borne along with their sides to the triremes of the enemy, they would be terror-stricken, despairing of their lives; but whenever the pilots, employing the skill of practice, would frustrate the attack, they would in turn be overjoyed and elated in their hopes.

Nor did the men whose position was on the decks fail to maintain the zeal which brooked no failure; but some, while still at a considerable distance from the enemy, kept up a stream of arrows and soon the space was full of missiles, while others, each time that they drew near, would hurl their javelins, some doing their best to strike the defending marines and others the enemy pilots themselves; and whenever the ships would come close together, they would not only fight with their spears but at the moment of contact would also leap over on the enemy's triremes and carry on the contest with their swords. [2] And since at each reverse the victors would raise the war-cry and the others would rush to aid with shouting, a mingled din prevailed over the entire area of the battle.

For a long time the battle was equally balanced because of the very high rivalry with which both sides were inspired; but later on Alcibiades unexpectedly appeared from Samos with twenty ships, sailing by mere chance to the Hellespont. [3] While these ships were still at a distance, each side, hoping that reinforcement had come for themselves, was elated in its hopes and fought on with far greater courage; but when the fleet was now near and for the Lacedaemonians no signal was to be seen, but for the Athenians Alcibiades ran up a purple flag from his own ship, which was the signal they had agreed upon, the Lacedaemonians in dismay turned in flight and the Athenians, elated by the advantage they now possessed, pressed eagerly upon the ships trying to escape. [4] And they speedily captured ten ships, but then a storm and violent winds arose, as a result of which they were greatly hindered in the pursuit; for because of the high waves the boats would not respond to the tillers, and the attempts at ramming proved fruitless, since the ships were receding when struck. [5] In the end the Lacedaemonians, gaining the shore, fled to the land army of Pharnabazus, and the Athenians at first essayed to drag the ships from the shore and put up a desperate battle, but when they were checked in their attempts by the Persian forces they sailed off to Sestus. [6] For Pharnabazus, wishing to build a defence for himself before the Lacedaemonians against the charges they were bringing against him, put up all the more vigorous fight against the Athenians; while at the same time, with respect to his sending the three hundred triremes to Phoenicia,91 he explained to them that he had done so on receiving information that the king of the Arabians and the king of the Egyptians had designs upon Phoenicia.

When the sea-battle had ended as we have related, the Athenians sailed off at the time to Sestus, since it was already night, but when day came they collected their ships which had been damaged and set up another trophy near the former one.92 [2] And Mindarus about the first watch of the night set out to Abydus, where he repaired his ships that had been damaged and sent word to the Lacedaemonians for reinforcements of both soldiers and ships; for he had in mind, while the fleet was being made ready, to lay siege with the army together with Pharnabazus to the cities in Asia which were allied with the Athenians. [3]

The people of Chalcis and almost all the rest of the inhabitants of Euboea had revolted from the Athenians93 and were therefore highly apprehensive lest, living as they did on an island, they should be forced to surrender to the Athenians, who were masters of the sea; and they therefore asked the Boeotians to join with them in building a causeway across the Euripus and thereby joining Euboea to Boeotia.94 [4] The Boeotians agreed to this, since it was to their special advantage that Euboea should be an island to everybody else but a part of the mainland to themselves. Consequently all the cities threw themselves vigorously into the building of the causeway and vied with one another; for orders were issued not only to the citizens to report en masse but to the foreigners dwelling among them as well, so that by reason of the great number that came forward to the work the proposed task was speedily completed. [5] On Euboea the causeway was built at Chalcis, and in Boeotia in the neighbourhood of Aulis, since at that place the channel was narrowest. Now it so happened that in former times also there had always been a current in that place and that the sea frequently reversed its course, and at the time in question the force of the current was far greater because the sea had been confined into a very narrow channel; for passage was left for only a single ship. High towers were also built on both ends and wooden bridges were thrown over the channel. [6]

Theramenes, who had been dispatched by the Athenians with thirty ships, at first attempted to stop the workers, but since a strong body of soldiers was at the side of the builders of the causeway, he abandoned this design and directed his voyage toward the islands.95 [7] And since he wished to relieve both the citizens and the allies from their contributions,96 he laid waste the territory of the enemy and collected great quantities of booty. He visited also the allied cities and exacted money of such inhabitants as were advocating a change in government. [8] And when he put in at Paros and found an oligarchy in the city, he restored their freedom to the people and exacted a great sum of money of the men who had participated in the oligarchy.

It happened at this time that a serious civil strife occurred in Corcyra accompanied by massacre, which is said to have been due to various causes but most of all to the mutual hatred that existed between its own inhabitants. [2] For never in any state have there taken place such murderings of citizens nor have there been greater quarrelling and contentiousness which culminated in bloodshed.97 For it would seem that the number of those who were slain by their fellow citizens before the present civil strife was some fifteen hundred, and all of these were leading citizens. [3] And although these misfortunes had already befallen them, Fortune brought upon them a second disaster, in that she increased once more the disaffection which prevailed among them. For the foremost Corcyraeans, who desired the oligarchy, favoured the cause of the Lacedaemonians, whereas the masses which favoured the democracy were eager to ally themselves with the Athenians. [4] For the peoples who were struggling for leadership in Greece were devoted to opposing principles; the Lacedaemonians, for example, made it their policy to put the control of the government in the hands of the leading citizens of their allied states, whereas the Athenians regularly established democracies in their cities. [5] Accordingly the Corcyraeans, seeing that their most influential citizens were planning to hand the city over to the Lacedaemonians, sent to the Athenians for an army to protect their city. [6] And Conon, the general of the Athenians, sailed to Corcyra and left in the city six hundred men from the Messenians in Naupactus,98 while he himself sailed on with his ships and cast anchor off the sacred precinct of Hera. [7] And the six hundred, setting out unexpectedly with the partisans of the people's party at the time of full market99 against the supporters of the Lacedaemonians, arrested some of them, slew others, and drove more than a thousand from the state; they also set the slaves free and gave citizenship to the foreigners living among them as a precaution against the great number and influence of the exiles. [8] Now the men who had been exiled from their country fled to the opposite mainland; but a few days later some people still in the city who favoured the cause of the exiles seized the market-place, called back the exiles, and essayed a final decision of the struggle. When night brought an end to the fighting they came to an agreement with each other, stopped their quarrelling, and resumed living together as one people in their fatherland.

Such, then, was the end of the massacre in Corcyra.

Archelaus, the king of the Macedonians,100 since the people of Pydna would not obey his orders, laid siege to the city with a great army. He received reinforcement also from Theramenes, who brought a fleet; but he, as the siege dragged on, sailed to Thrace, where he joined Thrasybulus who was commander of the entire fleet. [2] Archelaus now pressed the siege of Pydna more vigorously, and after reducing it he removed the city some twenty stades distant from the sea.

Mindarus, when the winter had come to an end, collected his triremes from all quarters, for many had come to him from the Peloponnesus as well as from the other allies. But the Athenian generals in Sestus, when they learned of the great size of the fleet that was being assembled by the enemy, were greatly alarmed lest the enemy, attacking with all their triremes, should capture their ships. [3] Consequently the generals on their side hauled down the ships they had at Sestus, sailed around the Chersonesus, and moored them at Cardia101; and they sent triremes to Thrasybulus and Theramenes in Thrace, urging them to come with their fleet as soon as possible, and they summoned Alcibiades also from Lesbos with what ships he had. And the whole fleet was gathered into one place, the generals being eager for a decisive battle. [4] Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian admiral, sailing to Cyzicus, disembarked his whole force and invested the city. Pharnabazus was also there with a large army and with his aid Mindarus laid siege to Cyzicus and took it by storm. [5]

The Athenian generals, having decided to sail to Cyzicus, put out to sea with all their ships and sailed around the Chersonesus. They arrived first at Eleus; and after that they made a special point of sailing past the city of Abydus at night, in order that the great number of their vessels might not be known to the enemy. [6] And when they had arrived at Proconnesus,102 they spent the night there and the next day they disembarked the soldiers who had shipped with them on the territory of the Cyzicenes and gave orders to Chaereas, their commander, to lead the army against the city.

As for the generals themselves, they divided the naval force into three squadrons, Alcibiades commanding one, Theramenes another, and Thrasybulus the third. Now Alcibiades with his own squadron advanced far ahead of the others, wishing to draw the Lacedaemonians out to a battle, whereas Theramenes and Thrasybulus planned the manoeuvre of encircling the enemy and, if they sailed out, of blocking their retreat to the city. [2] Mindarus, seeing only the ships of Alcibiades approaching, twenty in number, and having no knowledge of the others, held them in contempt and boldly set sail from the city with eighty ships to attack him. Then, when he had come near the ships of Alcibiades, the Athenians, as they had been commanded, pretended to flee, and the Peloponnesians, in high spirits, pursued after them vigorously in the belief they were winning the victory. [3] But after Alcibiades had drawn them a considerable distance from the city, he raised the signal; and when this was given, the ships of Alcibiades suddenly at the same time turned about to face the enemy, and Theramenes and Thrasybulus sailed toward the city and cut off the retreat of the Lacedaemonians. [4] The troops of Mindarus, when they now observed the multitude of the enemy ships and realized that they had been outgeneralled, were filled with great fear. And finally, since the Athenians were appearing from every direction and had shut off the Peloponnesians from their line of approach to the city, Mindarus was forced to seek safety on land near Cleri, as it is called, where also Pharnabazus had his army. [5] Alcibiades, pursuing him vigorously, sank some ships, damaged and captured others, and the largest number, which were moored on the land itself, he seized and threw grappling-irons on, endeavouring by this means to drag them from the land. [6] And when the infantry of Pharnabazus rushed to the aid of the Lacedaemonians, there was great bloodshed, inasmuch as the Athenians because of the advantage they had won were fighting with greater boldness than expediency, while the Peloponnesians were in number far superior; for the army of Pharnabazus was supporting the Lacedaemonians and fighting as it was from the land the position it had was more secure. [7] But when Thrasybulus saw the infantry aiding the enemy, he put the rest of his marines on the land with intent to assist Alcibiades and his men, and he also urged Theramenes to join up with the land troops of Chaereas and come with all speed, in order to wage a battle on land.

While the Athenians were busying themselves with these matters, Mindarus, the Lacedaemonian commander, was himself fighting with Alcibiades for the ships that were being dragged off, and he dispatched Clearchus the Spartan with a part of the Peloponnesians against the troops with Thrasybulus; and with him he also sent the mercenaries in the army of Pharnabazus. [2] Thrasybulus with the marines and archers at first stoutly withstood the enemy, and though he slew many of them, he also saw not a few of his own men falling; but when the mercenaries of Pharnabazus were surrounding the Athenians and were crowding about them in great numbers from every direction, Theramenes appeared, leading both his own troops and the infantry with Chaereas. [3] Although the troops of Thrasybulus were exhausted and had given up hope of rescue, their spirits were suddenly revived again when reinforcements so strong were at hand. [4] An obstinate battle which lasted a long time ensued; but at first the mercenaries of Pharnabazus began to withdraw and the continuity of their battle line was broken; and finally the Peloponnesians who had been left behind with Clearchus, after having both inflicted and suffered much punishment, were expelled. [5]

Now that the Peloponnesians had been defeated, the troops of Theramenes rushed to give aid to the soldiers who had been fighting under Alcibiades. Although the forces had rapidly assembled at one point, Mindarus was not dismayed at the attack of Theramenes, but, after dividing the Peloponnesians, with half of them he met the advancing enemy, while with the other half which he himself commanded, first calling upon each soldier not to disgrace the fair name of Sparta, and that too in a fight on land, he formed a line against the troops of Alcibiades. [6] He put up a heroic battle about the ships, fighting in person before all his troops, but though he slew many of the opponents, in the end he was killed by the troops of Alcibiades as he battled nobly for his fatherland. When he had fallen, both the Peloponnesians and all the allies banded together and broke into terror-stricken flight. [7] The Athenians pursued the enemy for a distance, but when they learned that Pharnabazus was hurrying up at full speed with a strong force of cavalry, they returned to the ships, and after they had taken the city103 they set up two trophies for the two victories, one for the sea-battle at the island of Polydorus, as it is called, and one for the land-battle where they forced the first flight of the enemy. [8] Now the Peloponnesians in the city and all the fugitives from the battle fled to the camp of Pharnabazus; and the Athenian generals not only captured all the ships but they also took many prisoners and an immeasurable quantity of booty, since they had won the victory at the same time over two armaments of such size.104

When the news of the victory came to Athens, the people, contemplating the unexpected good fortune which had come to the city after their former disasters, were elated over their successes and the populace in a body offered sacrifices to the gods and gathered in festive assemblies; and for the war they selected from their most stalwart men one thousand hoplites and one hundred horsemen, and in addition to these they dispatched thirty triremes to Alcibiades, in order that, now that they dominated the sea, they might lay waste with impunity the cities which favoured the Lacedaemonians. [2] The Lacedaemonians, on the other hand, when they heard of the disaster they had suffered at Cyzicus, sent ambassadors to Athens to treat for peace, the chief of whom was Endius.105 When permission was given him, he took the floor and spoke succinctly and in the terse fashion of Laconians, and for this reason I have decided not to omit the speech as he delivered it. [3]

“We want to be at peace with you, men of Athens, and that each party should keep the cities which it now possesses and cease to maintain its garrisons in the other's territory, and that our captives be ransomed, one Laconian for one Athenian. We are not unmindful that the war is hurtful to both of us, but far more to you. [4] Never mind the words I use but learn from the facts. As for us, we till the entire Peloponnesus, but you only a small part106 of Attica. While to the Laconians the war has brought many allies, from the Athenians it has taken away as many as it has given to their enemies. For us the richest king to be found in the inhabited world107 defrays the cost of the war, for you the most poverty-stricken folk of the inhabited world. [5] Consequently our troops, in view of their generous pay, make war with spirit, while your soldiers, because they pay the war-taxes out of their own pockets, shrink from both the hardships and the costs of war. [6] In the second place, when we make war at sea, we risk losing only hulls among resources of the state, while you have on board crews most of whom are citizens. And, what is the most important, even if we meet defeat in our actions at sea, we still maintain without dispute the mastery on land—for a Spartan foot-soldier does not even know what flight means—but you, if you are driven from the sea, contend, not for the supremacy on land, but for survival.

' [7] 'It remains for me to show you why, despite so many and great advantages we possess in the fighting, we urge you to make peace. I do not affirm that Sparta is profiting from the war, but only that she is suffering less than the Athenians. Only fools find satisfaction in sharing the misfortunes of their enemies, when it is in their power to make no trial whatsoever of misfortune. For the destruction of the enemy brings no joy that can balance the grief caused by the distress of one's own people. [8] And not for these reasons alone are we eager to come to terms, but because we hold fast to the custom of our fathers; for when we consider the many terrible sufferings which are caused by the rivalries which accompany war, we believe we should make it clear in the sight of all gods and men that we are least responsible of all men for such things.”

After the Laconian had made these and similar representations, the sentiments of the most reasonable men among the Athenians inclined toward the peace, but those who made it their practice to foment war and to turn disturbances in the state to their personal profit chose the war. [2] A supporter of this sentiment was, among others, Cleophon, who was the most influential leader of the populace at this time. He, taking the floor and arguing at length on the question in his own fashion, buoyed up the people, citing the magnitude of their military successes, as if indeed it is not the practice of Fortune to adjudge the advantages in war now to one side and now to the other. [3] Consequently the Athenians, after taking unwise counsel, repented of it when it could do them no good, and, deceived as they were by words spoken in flattery, they made a blunder so vital that never again at any time were they able truly to recover. [4] But these events, which took place at a later date, will be described in connection with the period of time to which they belong; at the time we are discussing the Athenians, being elated by their successes and entertaining many great hopes because they had Alcibiades as the leader of their armed forces, thought that they had quickly won back their supremacy. 108

When the events of this year had come to an end, in Athens Diocles took over the chief office,109 and in Rome Quintus Fabius and Gaius Furius held the consulship. At this time Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, gathered together both the mercenaries he had collected from Iberia and the soldiers he had enrolled from Libya, manned sixty ships of war, and made ready some fifteen hundred transports. [2] On these he loaded the troops, the siege-engines, missiles, and all the other accessories. After crossing with the fleet the Libyan Sea he came to land in Sicily on the promontory which lies opposite Libya and is called Lilybaeum; [3] and at that very time some Selinuntian cavalry were tarrying in those regions, and having seen the great size of the fleet as it came to land, they speedily informed their fellow citizens of the presence of the enemy. The Selinuntians at once dispatched their letter-carriers to the Syracusans, asking their aid; [4] and Hannibal disembarked his troops and pitched a camp, beginning at the well which in those times had the name Lilybaeum, and many years after these events, when a city was founded near it,110 the presence of the well occasioned the giving of the name to the city.111 [5] Hannibal had all told, as Ephorus has recorded, two hundred thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, but as Timaeus says, not many more than one hundred thousand men. His ships he hauled up on land in the bay about Motye,112 every one of them, wishing to give the Syracusans the impression that he had not come to make war upon them or to sail along the coast with his naval force against Syracuse. [6] And after adding to his army the soldiers supplied by the Aegestaeans and by the other allies he broke camp and made his way from Lilybaeum towards Selinus. And when he came to the Mazarus River, he took at the first assault the trading-station situated by it, and when he arrived before the city, he divided his army into two parts; then, after he had invested the city and put his siege-engines in position, he began the assaults with all speed. [7] He set up six towers of exceptional size and advanced an equal number of battering-rams plated with iron against the walls; furthermore, by employing his archers and slingers in great numbers he beat back the fighters on the battlements.

The Selinuntians, who had for a long time been without experience in sieges and had been the only Sicilian Greeks to fight on the side of the Carthaginians in the war against Gelon,113 had never conceived that they would be brought to such a state of fear by the people whom they had befriended. [2] But when they saw the great size of the engines of war and the hosts of the enemy, they were filled with dread and dismayed at the magnitude of the danger threatening them. [3] However, they did not totally despair of their deliverance, but in the expectation that the Syracusans and their other allies would soon arrive, the whole populace fought off the enemy from the walls. [4] Indeed all the men in the prime of life were armed and battled desperately, while the older men busied themselves with the supplies and, as they made the rounds of the wall, begged the young men not to allow them to fall under subjection to the enemy; and women and girls supplied the food and missiles to the defenders of the fatherland, counting as naught the modesty and the sense of shame which they cherished in time of peace. [5] Such consternation prevailed that the magnitude of the emergency called for even the aid of their women.

Hannibal, who had promised the soldiers that he would give them the city to pillage, pushed the siege-engines forward and assaulted the walls in waves with his best soldiers. [6] And all together the trumpets sounded the signal for attack and at one command the army of the Carthaginians as a body raised the war-cry, and by the power of the rams the walls were shaken, while by reason of the height of the towers the fighters on them slew many of the Selinuntians. [7] For in the long period of peace they had enjoyed they had given no attention whatever even to their walls and so they were easily subdued, since the wooden towers far exceeded the walls in height. When the wall fell the Campanians, being eager to accomplish some outstanding feat, broke swiftly into the city. [8] Now at the outset they struck terror into their opponents, who were few in number; but after that, when many gathered to the aid of the defenders, they were thrust out with heavy losses among their own soldiers; for since they had forced a passage when the wall had not yet been completely cleared and in their attack had fallen foul of difficult terrain, they were easily overcome. At nightfall the Carthaginians broke off the assault.

The Selinuntians, picking out their best horsemen, dispatched them at once by night, some to Acragas, and others to Gela and Syracuse, asking them to come to their aid with all speed, since their city could not withstand the strength of the enemy for any great time. [2] Now the Acragantini and Geloans waited for the Syracusans, since they wished to lead their troops as one body against the Carthaginians; and the Syracusans, on learning the facts about the siege, first stopped the war they were engaged in with the Chalcidians and then spent some time in gathering the troops from the countryside and making great preparations, thinking that the city might be forced by siege to surrender but would not be taken by storm. [3]

Hannibal, when the night had passed, at daybreak launched assaults from every side, and the part of the city's wall which had already fallen and the portion of the wall next the breach he broke down with the siege-engines. [4] He then cleared the area of the fallen part of the wall and, attacking in relays of his best troops, gradually forced out the Selinuntians; it was not possible, however, to overpower by force men who were fighting for their very existence. [5] Both sides suffered heavy losses, but for the Carthaginians fresh troops kept taking over the fighting, while for the Selinuntians there was no reserve to come to their support. The siege continued for nine days with unsurpassed stubbornness, and in the event the Carthaginians suffered and inflicted many terrible injuries. [6] When the Iberians mounted where the wall had fallen, the women who were on the house-tops raised a great cry, whereupon the Selinuntians, thinking that the city was being taken, were struck with terror, and leaving the walls they gathered in bands at the entrances of the narrow alleys, endeavoured to barricade the streets, and held off the enemy for a long time. [7] And as the Carthaginians pressed the attack, the multitudes of women and children took refuge on the housetops whence they threw both stones and tiles on the enemy. For a long time the Carthaginians came off badly, being unable either, because of the walls of the houses, to surround the men in the alleys or, because of those hurling at them from the roofs, to fight it out on equal terms. [8] However, as the struggle went on until the afternoon, the missiles of the fighters from the houses were exhausted, whereas the troops of the Carthaginians, which constantly relieved those which were suffering heavily, continued the fighting in fresh condition. Finally, since the troops within the walls were being steadily reduced in number and the enemy entered the city in ever increasing strength, the Selinuntians were forced out of the alleys.

And so, while the city was being taken, there was to be observed among the Greeks lamentation and weeping, and among the barbarians there was cheering and commingled outcries; for the former, as their eyes looked upon the great disaster which surrounded them, were filled with terror, while the latter, elated by their successes, urged on their comrades to slaughter. [2] The Selinuntians gathered into the market-place and all who reached it died fighting there; and the barbarians, scattering throughout the entire city, plundered whatever of value was to be found in the dwellings, while of the inhabitants they found in them some they burned together with their homes and when others struggled into the streets, without distinction of sex or age but whether infant children or women or old men, they put them to the sword, showing no sign of compassion. [3] They mutilated even the dead according to the practice of their people, some carrying bunches of hands about their bodies and others heads which they had spitted upon their javelins and spears.114 Such women as they found to have taken refuge together with their children in the temples they called upon their comrades not to kill, and to these alone did they give assurance of their lives. [4] This they did, however, not out of pity for the unfortunate people, but because they feared lest the women, despairing of their lives, would burn down the temples, and thus they would not be able to make booty of the great wealth which was stored up in them as dedications. [5] To such a degree did the barbarians surpass all other men in cruelty, that whereas the rest of mankind spare those who seek refuge in the sanctuaries from the desire not to commit sacrilege against the deity, the Carthaginians, on the contrary, would refrain from laying hands on the enemy in order that they might plunder the temples of their gods. [6] By nightfall the city had been sacked, and of the dwellings some had been burned and others razed to the ground, while the whole area was filled with blood and corpses. Sixteen thousand was the sum of the inhabitants who were found to have fallen, not counting the more than five thousand who had been taken captive.

The Greeks serving as allies of the Carthaginians, as they contemplated the reversal in the lives of the hapless Selinuntians, felt pity at their lot. The women, deprived now of the pampered life they had enjoyed, spent the nights in the very midst of the enemies' lasciviousness, enduring terrible indignities, and some were obliged to see their daughters of marriageable age suffering treatment improper for their years. [2] For the savagery of the barbarians spared neither free-born youths nor maidens, but exposed these unfortunates to dreadful disasters. Consequently, as the women reflected upon the slavery that would be their lot in Libya, as they saw themselves together with their children in a condition in which they possessed no legal rights and were subject to insolent treatment and thus compelled to obey masters, and as they noted that these masters used an unintelligible speech and had a bestial character, they mourned for their living children as dead, and receiving into their souls as a piercing wound each and every outrage committed against them, they became frantic with suffering and vehemently deplored their own fate; while as for their fathers and brothers who had died fighting for their country, them they counted blessed, since they had not witnessed any sight unworthy of their own valour. [3] The Selinuntians who had escaped capture, twenty-six hundred in number, made their way in safety to Acragas and there received all possible kindness; for the Acragantini, after portioning out food to them at public expense, divided them for billeting among their homes, urging the private citizens, who were indeed eager enough, to supply them with every necessity of life.

While these events were taking place there arrived at Acragas three thousand picked soldiers from the Syracusans, who had been dispatched in advance with all speed to bring aid. On learning of the fall of Selinus, they sent ambassadors to Hannibal urging him both to release the captives on payment of ransom and to spare the temples of the gods. [2] Hannibal replied that the Selinuntians, having proved incapable of defending their freedom, would now undergo the experience of slavery, and that the gods had departed from Selinus, having become offended with its inhabitants. [3] However, since the fugitives had sent Empedion as an ambassador, to him Hannibal restored his possessions; for Empedion had always favoured the cause of the Carthaginians and before the siege had counselled the citizens not to go to war against the Carthaginians. Hannibal also graciously delivered up to him his kinsmen who were among the captives and to the Selinuntians who had escaped he gave permission to dwell in the city and to cultivate its fields upon payment of tribute to the Carthaginians. [4]

Now this city was taken after it had been inhabited from its founding for a period of two hundred and forty-two years. And Hannibal, after destroying the walls of Selinus, departed with his whole army to Himera, being especially bent upon razing this city to the ground. [5] For it was this city which had caused his father to be exiled and before its walls his grandfather Hamilcar had been out-generalled by Gelon and then met his end,115 and with him one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers had perished and no fewer than these had been taken captive. [6] These were the reasons why Hannibal was eager to exact punishment, and with forty thousand men he pitched camp upon some hills not far from the city, while with the rest of his entire army he invested the city, twenty thousand additional soldiers from both Siceli and Sicani having joined him. [7] Setting up his siege-engines he shook the walls at a number of points, and since he pressed the battle with waves of troops in great strength, he wore down the defenders, especially since his soldiers were elated by their successes. [8] He also set about undermining the walls, which he then shored up with wooden supports, and when these were set on fire, a large section of the wall soon fell. Thereupon there ensued a most bitter battle, one side struggling to force its way inside the wall and the other fearing lest they should suffer the same fate as the Selinuntians. [9] Consequently, since the defenders put up a struggle to the death on behalf of children and parents and the fatherland which all men fight to defend, the barbarians were thrust out and the section of the wall quickly restored. To their aid came also the Syracusans from Acragas and troops from their other allies, some four thousand in all, who were under the command of Diocles the Syracusan.

At that juncture, when night brought an end to all further striving for victory, the Carthaginians abandoned the attack. And when day came, the Himeraeans decided not to allow themselves to be shut in and surrounded in this ignominious manner, as were the Selinuntians, and so they stationed guards on the walls and led out of the city the rest of their soldiers together with the allies who had arrived, some ten thousand men. [2] And by engaging the enemy thus unexpectedly, they threw the barbarians into consternation, thinking as they did that allied forces had arrived to aid those who were penned in by the siege. And because the Himeraeans were far superior in deeds of daring and of skill, and especially because their single hope of safety lay in their prevailing in the battle, at the outset they slew the first opponents. [3] And since the multitude of the barbarians thronged together in great disorder because they never would have expected that the besieged would dare such a move, they were under no little disadvantage; for when eighty thousand men streamed together without order into one place, the result was that the barbarians clashed with each other and suffered more heavily from themselves than from the enemy. [4] The Himeraeans, having as spectators on the walls parents and children as well as all their relatives, spent their own lives unsparingly for the salvation of them all. [5] And since they fought brilliantly, the barbarians, dismayed by their deeds of daring and unexpected resistance, turned in flight. They fled in disorder to the troops encamped on the hills, and the Himeraeans pressed hard upon them, crying out to each other to take no man captive, and they slew more than six thousand of them, according to Timaeus, or, as Ephorus states, more than twenty thousand. [6] But Hannibal, seeing that his men were becoming exhausted, brought down his troops who were encamped on the hills, and reinforcing his beaten soldiers caught the Himeraeans in disorder as they were pushing the pursuit. [7] In the fierce battle which ensued the main body of the Himeraeans turned in flight, but three thousand of them who tried to oppose the Carthaginian army, though they accomplished great deeds, were slain to a man.

This battle had already come to an end when there arrived at Himera from the Sicilian Greeks the twenty-five triremes which had previously been sent to aid the Lacedaemonians116 but at this time had returned from the campaign. [2] And a report also spread through the city that the Syracusans en masse together with their allies were on the march to the aid of the Himeraeans and that Hannibal was preparing to man his triremes in Motye with his choicest troops and, sailing to Syracuse, seize that city while it was stripped of its defenders. [3] Consequently Diocles, who commanded the forces in Himera, advised the admirals of the fleet to set sail with all speed for Syracuse, in order that it might not happen that the city should be taken by storm while its best troops were fighting a war abroad. [4] They decided, therefore, that their best course was to abandon the city, and that they should embark half the populace on the triremes (for these would convey them until they had got beyond Himeraean territory) and with the other half keep guard until the triremes should return. [5] Although the Himeraeans complained indignantly at this conclusion, since there was no other course they could take, the triremes were hastily loaded by night with a mixed throng of women and children and of other inhabitants also, who sailed on them as far as Messene; [6] and Diocles, taking his own soldiers and leaving behind the bodies of those who had fallen in the fighting, set forth upon the journey home.117 And many Himeraeans with children and wives set out with Diocles, since the triremes could not carry the whole populace.

Those who had been left behind in Himera spent the night under arms on the walls; and when with the coming of day the Carthaginians surrounded the city and launched repeated attacks, the remaining Himeraeans fought with no thought for their lives, expecting the arrival of the ships. [2] For that day, therefore, they continued to hold out, but on the next, even when the triremes were already in sight, it so happened that the wall began to fall before the blows of the siege-engines and the Iberians to pour in a body into the city. Some of the barbarians thereupon would hold off the Himeraeans who rushed up to bring aid, while others, gaining command of the walls, would help their comrades get in. [3] Now that the city had been taken by storm, for a long time the barbarians continued, with no sign of compassion, to slaughter everyone they seized. But when Hannibal issued orders to take prisoners, although the slaughter stopped, the wealth of the dwellings now became the objects of plunder. [4] Hannibal, after sacking the temples and dragging out the suppliants who had fled to them for safety, set them afire, and the city he razed to the ground, two hundred and forty years after its founding. Of the captives the women and children he distributed among the army and kept them under guard, but the men whom he took captive, some three thousand, he led to the spot where once his grandfather Hamilcar had been slain by Gelon118 and after torturing them put them all to death. [5] After this, breaking up his army, he sent the Sicilian allies back to their countries, and accompanying them also were the Campanians, who bitterly complained to the Carthaginians that, though they had been the ones chiefly responsible for the Carthaginian successes, the rewards they had received were not a fair return for their accomplishments. [6] Then Hannibal embarked his army on the warships and merchant vessels, and leaving behind sufficient troops for the needs of his allies he set sail from Sicily. And when he arrived at Carthage with much booty, the whole city came out to meet him, paying him homage and honour as one who in a brief time had performed greater deeds than any general before him.

Hermocrates the Syracusan arrived in Sicily. This man, who had served as general in the war against the Athenians and had been of great service to his country, had acquired the greatest influence among the Syracusans, but afterwards, when he had been sent as admiral in command of thirty-five triremes to support the Lacedaemonians,119 he was overpowered by his political opponents and, upon being condemned to exile, he handed over the fleet in the Peloponnesus120 to the men who had been dispatched to succeed him. [2] And since he had struck up a friendship with Pharnabazus, the satrap of the Persians, as a result of the campaign, he accepted from him a great sum of money with which, after he had arrived at Messene, he had five triremes built and hired a thousand soldiers. [3] Then, after adding to this force also about a thousand of the Himeraeans who had been driven from their home, he endeavoured with the aid of his friends to make good his return to Syracuse; but when he failed in this design, he set out through the middle of the island and seizing Selinus he built a wall about a part of the city and called to him from all quarters the Selinuntians who were still alive.121 [4] He also received many others into the place and thus gathered a force of six thousand picked warriors. Making Selinus his base he first laid waste the territory of the inhabitants of Motye122 and defeating in battle those who came out from the city against him he slew many and pursued the rest within the wall of the city. After this he ravaged the territory of the people of Panormus123 and acquired countless booty, and when the inhabitants offered battle en masse before the city he slew about five hundred of them and shut up the rest within their walls. [5] And since he also laid waste in like fashion all the rest of the territory in the hands of the Carthaginians, he won the commendation of the Sicilian Greeks. And at once the majority of the Syracusans also repented of their treatment of him, realizing that Hermocrates had been banished contrary to the merits of his valour. [6] Consequently, after much discussion of him in meetings of the assembly, it was evident that the people desired to receive the man back from exile, and Hermocrates, on hearing of the talk about himself that was current in Syracuse, laid careful plans regarding his return from exile, knowing that his political opponents would work against it.

Such was the course of events in Sicily.

In Greece Thrasybulus,124 who had been sent out by the Athenians with thirty ships and a strong force of hoplites as well as a hundred horsemen, put in at Ephesus; and after disembarking his troops at two points he launched assaults upon the city. The inhabitants came out of the city against them and a fierce battle ensued; and since the entire populace of the Ephesians joined in the fighting, four hundred Athenians were slain and the remainder Thrasybulus125 took aboard his ships and sailed off to Lesbos. [2] The Athenian generals who were in the neighbourhood of Cyzicus, sailing to Chalcedon,126 established there the fortress of Chrysopolis and left an adequate force behind; and the officers in charge they ordered to collect a tenth from all merchants sailing out of the Pontus. [3] After this they divided their forces and Theramenes was left behind with fifty ships with which to lay siege to Chalcedon and Byzantium, and Thrasybulus was sent to Thrace, where he brought the cities in those regions over to the Athenians. [4] And Alcibiades, after giving Thrasybulus127 a separate command128 with the thirty ships, sailed to the territory held by Pharnabazus, and when they had conjointly laid waste a great amount of that territory, they not only sated the soldiers with plunder but also themselves realized money from the booty, since they wished to relieve the Athenian people of the property-taxes imposed for the prosecution of the war. [5]

When the Lacedaemonians learned that all the armaments of the Athenians were in the region of the Hellespont, they undertook a campaign against Pylos, which the Messenians held with a garrison; on the sea they had eleven ships, of which five were from Sicily and six were manned by their own citizens, while on land they had gathered an adequate army, and after investing the fortress they began to wreak havoc both by land and by sea. [6] As soon as the Athenian people learned of this they dispatched to the aid of the besieged thirty ships and as general Anytus129 the son of Anthemion. Now Anytus sailed out on his mission, but when he was unable to round Cape Malea because of storms he returned to Athens. The people were so incensed at this that they accused him of treason and brought him to trial; but Anytus, being in great danger, saved his own life by the use of money, and he is reputed to have been the first Athenian to have bribed a jury. [7] Meanwhile the Messenians in Pylos held out for some time, awaiting aid from the Athenians; but since the enemy kept launching successive assaults and of their own number some were dying of wounds and others were reduced to sad straits for lack of food, they abandoned the place under a truce. And so the Lacedaemonians became masters of Pylos, after the Athenians had held it fifteen years from the time Demosthenes had fortified it.130

While these events were taking place, the Megarians seized Nisaea, which was in the hands of Athenians, and the Athenians dispatched against them Leotrophides and Timarchus with a thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry. The Megarians went out to meet them en masse under arms, and after adding to their number some of the troops from Sicily they drew up for battle near the hills called “The Cerata.”131 [2] Since the Athenians fought brilliantly and put to flight the enemy, who greatly outnumbered them, many of the Megarians were slain but only twenty Lacedaemonians132; for the Athenians, made angry by the seizure of Nisaea, did not pursue the Lacedaemonians but slew great numbers of the Megarians with whom they were indignant. [3]

The Lacedaemonians, having chosen Cratesippidas as admiral and manned twenty-five of their own ships with troops furnished by their allies, ordered them to go to the aid of their allies. Cratesippidas spent some time near Ionia without accomplishing anything worthy of mention; but later, after receiving money from the exiles of Chios, he restored them to their homes and seized the acropolis of the Chians. [4] And the returned exiles of the Chians banished the men who were their political opponents and had been responsible for their exile to the number of approximately six hundred. These men then seized a place called Atarneus on the opposite mainland, which was by nature extremely rugged, and henceforth, from that as their base, continued to make war on their opponents who held Chios.

While these events were taking place Alcibiades and Thrasybulus,133 after fortifying Lampsacus, left a strong garrison in that place and themselves sailed with their force to Theramenes, who was laying waste Chalcedon with seventy ships and five thousand soldiers. And when the armaments had been brought together into one place they threw a wooden stockade about the city from sea to sea.134 [2] Hippocrates, who had been stationed by the Lacedaemonians in the city as commander (the Laconians call such a man a “harmost”), led against them both his own soldiers and all the Chalcedonians. A fierce battle ensued, and since the troops of Alcibiades fought stoutly, not only Hippocrates fell but of the rest of the soldiers some were slain, and the others, disabled by wounds, took refuge in a body in the city. [3] After this Alcibiades sailed out into the Hellespont and to Chersonesus, wishing to collect money, and Theramenes concluded an agreement with the Chalcedonians whereby the Athenians received from them as much tribute as before. Then leading his troops from there to Byzantium he laid siege to the city and with great alacrity set about walling it off. [4] And Alcibiades, after collecting money, persuaded many of the Thracians to join his army and he also took into it the inhabitants of Chersonesus en masse; then, setting forth with his entire force, he first took Selybria135 by betrayal, in which, after exacting from it much money, he left a garrison, and then himself came speedily to Theramenes at Byzantium. [5] When the armaments had been united, the commanders began making the preparations for a siege; for they were setting out to conquer a city of great wealth which was crowded with defenders, since, not counting the Byzantines, who were many, Clearchus, the Lacedaemonian harmost, had in the city many Peloponnesians and mercenaries. [6] Consequently, though they kept launching assaults for some time, they continued to inflict no notable damage on the defenders; but when the governor136 left the city to visit Pharnabazus in order to get money, thereupon certain Byzantines, hating the severity of his administration (for Clearchus was a harsh man), agreed to deliver up the city to Alcibiades and his colleagues.

The Athenian generals, giving the impression that they intended to raise the siege and take their armaments to Ionia, sailed out in the afternoon with all their ships and withdrew the land army some distance; but when night came, they turned back again and about the middle of the night drew near the city, and they dispatched the triremes with orders to drag off the boats137 and to raise a clamour as if the entire force were at that point, while they themselves, holding the land army before the walls, watched for the signal which had been agreed upon with those who were yielding the city. [2] And when the crews of the triremes set about carrying out their orders, shattering some of the boats with their rams, trying to haul off others with their grappling irons, and all the while raising a tremendous outcry,138 the Peloponnesians in the city and everyone who was unaware of the trickery rushed out to the harbours to bring aid. [3] Consequently the betrayers of the city raised the signal from the wall and admitted Alcibiades' troops by means of ladders in complete safety, since the multitude had thronged down to the harbour. [4] When the Peloponnesians learned what had happened, at first they left half their troops at the harbour and with the rest speedily rushed back to attack the walls which had been seized. [5] And although practically the entire force of the Athenians had already effected an entrance, they nonetheless were not panic-stricken but resisted stoutly for a long while and battled the Athenians with the help of the Byzantines. And in the end the Athenians would not have conquered the city by fighting, had not Alcibiades, perceiving his opportunity, had the announcement made that no wrong should be done to the Byzantines; for at this word the citizens changed sides and turned upon the Peloponnesians. [6] Thereupon the most of them were slain fighting gallantly, and the survivors, about five hundred, fled for refuge to the altars of the temples. [7] The Athenians returned the city to the Byzantines, having first made them allies, and then came to terms with the suppliants at the altars: the Athenians would take away their arms and carrying their persons to Athens turn them over to the decision of the Athenian people. 139

At the end of the year the Athenians bestowed the office of archon upon Euctemon and the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Papirius and Spurius Nautius, and the Ninety-third Olympiad was celebrated, that in which Eubatus of Cyrene won the “stadion.” About this time the Athenian generals, now that they had taken possession of Byzantium, proceeded against the Hellespont and took every one of the cities of that region with the exception of Abydus.140 [2] Then they left Diodorus and Mantitheus in charge with an adequate force and themselves sailed to Athens with the ships and the spoils, having performed many great deeds for the fatherland. When they drew near the city, the populace in a body, overjoyed at their successes, came out to meet them, and great numbers of the aliens, as well as children and women, flocked to the Peiraeus. [3] For the return of the generals gave great cause for amazement, in that they brought no less than two hundred captured vessels, a multitude of captive soldiers, and a great store of spoils; and their own triremes they had gone to great care to embellish with gilded arms and garlands and, besides, with spoils and all such decorations. But most men thronged to the harbours to catch sight of Alcibiades, so that the city was entirely deserted, the slaves vying with the free. [4] For at that time it had come to pass that this man was such an object of admiration that the leading Athenians thought that they had at long last found a strong man capable of opposing the people openly and boldly, while the poor had assumed that they would have in him an excellent supporter who would recklessly throw the city into confusion and relieve their destitute condition. [5] For in boldness he far excelled all other men, he was a most eloquent speaker, in generalship he was unsurpassed, and in daring he was most successful; furthermore, in appearance he was exceedingly handsome and in spirit brilliant and intent upon great enterprises. [6] In a word, practically all men had conceived such assumptions regarding him that they believed that along with his return from exile good fortune in their undertakings had also come again to the city. Furthermore, just as the Lacedaemonians enjoyed success while he was fighting on their side, so they expected that they in turn would again prosper when they had this man as an ally.

So when the fleet came to land the multitude turned to the ship of Alcibiades, and as he stepped from it all gave their welcome to the man, congratulating him on both his successes and his return from exile. He in turn, after greeting the crowds kindly, called a meeting of the Assembly, and offering a long defence of his conduct he brought the masses into such a state of goodwill to him that all agreed that the city had been to blame for the decrees issued against him. [2] Consequently they not only returned to him his property, which they had confiscated, but went farther and cast into the sea the stelae on which were written his sentence and all the other acts passed against him; and they also voted that the Eumolpidae141 should revoke the curse they had pronounced against him at the time when men believed he had profaned the Mysteries. [3] And to cap all they appointed him general with supreme power both on land and on sea and put in his hands all their armaments. They also chose as generals others whom he wished, namely, Adeimantus and Thrasybulus. [4]

Alcibiades manned one hundred ships and sailed to Andros, and seizing Gaurium, a stronghold, he strengthened it with a wall. And when the Andrians, together with the Peloponnesians who were guarding the city, came out against him en masse, a battle ensued in which the Athenians were the victors; and of the inhabitants of the city many were slain, and of those who escaped some were scattered throughout the countryside and the rest found safety within the walls. [5] As for Alcibiades, after having launched assaults upon the city he left an adequate garrison in the fort he had occupied, appointing Thrasybulus commander, and himself sailed away with his force and ravaged both Cos and Rhodes, collecting abundant booty to support his soldiers.

Although the Lacedaemonians had entirely lost not only their sea force but Mindarus, the commander, together with it, nevertheless they did not let their spirits sink, but they chose as admiral Lysander, a man who was believed to excel all others in skill as a general and who possessed a daring that was ready to meet every situation. As soon as Lysander assumed the command he enrolled an adequate number of soldiers from the Peloponnesus and also manned as many ships as he was able. [2] Sailing to Rhodes he added to his force the ships which the cities of Rhodes possessed, and then sailed to Ephesus and Miletus. After equipping the triremes in these cities he summoned those which were supplied by Chios and thus fitted out at Ephesus a fleet of approximately seventy ships. [3] And hearing that Cyrus,142 the son of King Darius, had been dispatched by his father to aid the Lacedaemonians in the war, he went to him at Sardis, and stirring up the youth's143 enthusiasm for the war against the Athenians he received on the spot ten thousand darics144 for the pay of his soldiers; and for the future Cyrus told him to make requests without reserve, since, as he stated, he carried orders from his father to supply the Lacedaemonians with whatever they should want. [4] Then Lysander, returning to Ephesus, called to him the most influential men of the cities, and arranging with them to form cabals he promised that if his undertakings were successful he would put each group in control of its city. And it came to pass for this reason that these men, vying with one another, gave greater aid than was required of them and that Lysander was quickly supplied in starting fashion with all the equipment that is useful in war.

When Alcibiades learned that Lysander was fitting out his fleet in Ephesus, he set sail for there with all his ships. He sailed up to the harbours, but when no one came out against him, he had most of his ships cast anchor at Notium,145 entrusting the command of them to Antiochus, his personal pilot, with orders not to accept battle until he should be present, while he took the troop-ships and sailed in haste to Clazomenae; for this city, which was an ally of the Athenians, was suffering from forays by some of its exiles. [2] But Antiochus, who was by nature an impetuous man and was eager to accomplish some brilliant deed on his own account, paid no attention to the orders of Alcibiades, but manning ten of the best ships and ordering the captains to keep the others ready in case they should need to accept battle, he sailed up to the enemy in order to challenge them to battle. [3] But Lysander, who had learned from certain deserters of the departure of Alcibiades and his best soldiers, decided that the favourable time had come for him to strike a blow worthy of Sparta. Accordingly, putting out to sea for the attack with all his ships, he encountered the leading one of the ten ships, the one on which Antiochus had taken his place for the attack, and sank it, and then, putting the rest to flight, he chased them until the Athenian captains manned the rest of their vessels and came to the rescue, but in no battle order at all. [4] In the sea-battle which followed between the two entire fleets not far from the land the Athenians, because of their disorder, were defeated and lost twenty-two ships, but of their crews only a few were taken captive and the rest swam to safety ashore. When Alcibiades learned what had taken place, he returned in haste to Notium and manning all the triremes sailed to the harbours which were held by the enemy; but since Lysander would not venture to come out against him, he directed his course to Samos.

While these events were taking place Thrasybulus, the Athenian general, sailing to Thasos with fifteen ships defeated in battle the troops who came out from the city and slew about two hundred of them; then, having bottled them up in a siege of the city, he forced them to receive back their exiles, that is the men who favoured the Athenians, to accept a garrison, and to be allies of the Athenians. [2] After this, sailing to Abdera,146 he brought that city, which at that time was among the most powerful in Thrace, over to the side of the Athenians.

Now the foregoing is what the Athenian generals had accomplished since they sailed from Athens. [3] But Agis, the king of the Lacedaemonians, as it happened, was at the time in Deceleia147 with his army, and when he learned that the best Athenian troops were engaged in an expedition with Alcibiades, he led his army on a moonless night to Athens. [4] He had twenty-eight thousand infantry, one-half of whom were picked hoplites and the other half light-armed troops; there were also attached to his army some twelve hundred cavalry, of whom the Boeotians furnished nine hundred and the rest had been sent with him by Peloponnesians. As he drew near the city, he came upon the outposts before they were aware of him, and easily dispersing them because they were taken by surprise he slew a few and pursued the rest within the walls. [5] When the Athenians learned what had happened, they issued orders for all the order men and the sturdiest of the youth to present themselves under arms. Since these promptly responded to the call, the circuit of the wall was manned with those who had rushed together to meet the common peril; [6] and the Athenian generals, when in the morning they surveyed the army of the enemy extended in a line four men deep and eight stades in length, at the moment were at first dismayed, seeing as they did that approximately two-thirds of the wall was surrounded by the enemy. [7] After this, however, they sent out their cavalry, who were about equal in number to the opposing cavalry, and when the two bodies met in a cavalry-battle before the city, sharp fighting ensued which lasted for some time. For the line of the infantry was some five stades from the wall, but the cavalry which had engaged each other were fighting at the very walls. [8] Now the Boeotians, who by themselves alone had formerly defeated the Athenians at Delium,148 thought it would be a terrible thing if they should prove to be inferior to the men they had once conquered, while the Athenians, since they had as spectators of their valour the populace standing upon the walls and were known every one to them, were ready to endure everything for the sake of victory. [9] Finally, overpowering their opponents they slew great numbers of them and pursued the remainder as far as the line of the infantry. After this when the infantry advanced against them, they withdrew within the city.

Agis, deciding for the time not to lay siege to the city, pitched camp in the Academy,149 but on the next day, after the Athenians had set up a trophy, he drew up his army in battle order and challenged the troops in the city to fight it out for the possession of the trophy. [2] The Athenians led forth their soldiers and drew them up along the wall, and at first the Lacedaemonians advanced to offer battle, but since a great multitude of missiles was hurled at them from the walls, they led their army away from the city. After this they ravaged the rest of Attica and then departed to the Peloponnesus. [3]

Alcibiades, having sailed with all his ships from Samos to Cyme,150 hurled false charges against the Cymaeans, since he wished to have an excuse for plundering their territory. And at the outset he gained possession of many captives and was taking them to his ships; [4] but when the men of the city came out en masse to the rescue and fell unexpectedly on Alcibiades' troops, for a time they stood off the attack, but as later many from the city and countryside reinforced the Cymaeans, they were forced to abandon their prisoners and flee for safety to their ships. [5] Alcibiades, being greatly distressed by his reverses, summoned his hoplites from Mitylene, and drawing up his army before the city he challenged the Cymaeans to battle; but when no one came out of the city, he ravaged its territory and sailed off to Mitylene. [6] The Cymaeans dispatched an embassy to Athens and denounced Alcibiades for having laid waste an allied city which had done no wrong; and there were also many other charges brought against him; for some of the soldiers at Samos, who were at odds with him, sailed to Athens and accused Alcibiades in the Assembly of favouring the Lacedaemonian cause and of forming ties of friendship with Pharnabazus whereby he hoped that at the conclusion of the war he should lord it over his fellow citizens.

Since the multitude soon began to believe these accusations, not only was the fame of Alcibiades damaged because of his defeat in the sea-battle and the wrongs he had committed against Cyme, but the Athenian people, viewing with suspicion the boldness of the man, chose as the ten generals Conon, Lysias, Diomedon, and Pericles, and in addition Erasinides, Aristocrates, Archestratus, Protomachus, Thrasybulus,151 and Aristogenes. Of these they gave first place to Conon and dispatched him at once to take over the fleet from Alcibiades. [2] After Alcibiades had relinquished his command to Conon and handed over his armaments, he gave up any thought of returning to Athens, but with one trireme withdrew to Pactye152 in Thrace, since, apart from the anger of the multitude, he was afraid of the law-suits which had been brought against him. [3] For there were many who, on seeing how he was hated, had filed numerous complaints against him, the most important of which was the one about the horses, involving the sum of eight talents. Diomedes, it appears, one of his friends, had sent in his care a four-horse team to Olympia; and Alcibiades, when entering it in the usual way, listed the horses as his own; and when he was the victor in the four-horse race, Alcibiades took for himself the glory of the victory and did not return the horses to the man who had entrusted them to his care.153 [4] As he thought about all these things he was afraid lest the Athenians, seizing a suitable occasion, would inflict punishment upon him for all the wrongs he had committed against them. Consequently he himself condemned himself to exile.154

The two-horse chariot race155 was added in this same Olympic Festival156; and among the Lacedaemonians Pleistonax, their king, died after a reign of fifty years, and Pausanias succeeded to the throne and reigned for fourteen years. Also the inhabitants of the island of Rhodes left the cities of Ielysus, Lindus, and Cameirus and settled in one city, that which is now called Rhodes. [2]

Hermocrates,157 the Syracusan, taking his soldiers set out from Selinus, and on arriving at Himera he pitched camp in the suburbs of the city, which lay in ruins. And finding out the place where the Syracusans had made their stand, he collected the bones of the dead158 and putting them upon wagons which he had constructed and embellished at great cost he conveyed them to Syracuse. [3] Now Hermocrates himself stopped at the border of Syracusan territory, since the exiles were forbidden by the laws from accompanying the bones farther, but he sent on some of his troops who brought the wagons to Syracuse. [4] Hermocrates acted in this way in order that Diocles, who opposed his return and was generally believed to be responsible for the lack of concern over the failure to bury the dead, should fall out with the masses, whereas he, by his humane consideration for the dead, would win the multitude back to the feeling of goodwill in which they had formerly held him. [5] Now when the bones had been brought into the city, civil discord arose among the masses, Diocles objecting to their burial and the majority favouring it. Finally the Syracusans not only buried the remains of the dead but also by turning out en masse paid honour to the burial procession. Diocles was exiled; but even so they did not receive Hermocrates back, since they were wary of the daring of the man and feared lest, once he had gained a position of leadership, he should proclaim himself tyrant. [6] Accordingly Hermocrates, seeing that the time was not opportune for resorting to force, withdrew again to Selinus. But some time later, when his friends sent for him, he set out with three thousand soldiers, and making his way through the territory of Gela he arrived at night at the place agreed upon. [7] Although not all his soldiers had been able to accompany him, Hermocrates with a small number of them came to the gate on Achradine, and when he found that some of his friends had already occupied the region, he waited to pick up the latecomers. [8] But when the Syracusans heard what had happened, they gathered in the market-place under arms, and here, since they appeared accompanied by a great multitude, they slew both Hermocrates and most of his supporters. Those who had not been killed in the fighting were brought to trial and sentenced to exile; [9] consequently some of them who had been severely wounded were reported by their relatives as having died, in order that they might not be given over to the wrath of the multitude. Among their number was also Dionysius, who later became tyrant of the Syracusans.159 160

When the events of this year came to an end, in Athens Antigenes took over the office of archon and the Romans elected as consuls Gaius Manius Aemilius and Gaius Valerius. About this time Conon, the Athenian general, now that he had taken over the armaments in Samos,161 fitted out the ships which were in that place and also collected those of the allies, since he was intent upon making his fleet a match for the ships of the enemy. [2] And the Spartans, when Lysander's period of command as admiral had expired, dispatched Callicratidas to succeed him. Callicratidas was a very young man, without guile and straight-forward in character, since he had had as yet no experience of the ways of foreign peoples, and was the most just man among the Spartans; and it is agreed by all that also during his period of command he committed no wrong against either a city or a private citizen but dealt summarily with those who tried to corrupt him with money and had them punished. [3] He put in at Ephesus and took over the fleet, and since he had already sent for the ships of the allies, the sum total he took over, including those of Lysander, was one hundred and forty. And since the Athenians held Delphinium in the territory of the Chians, he sailed against them with all his ships and undertook to lay siege to it. [4] The Athenians, who numbered some five hundred, were dismayed at the great size of his force and abandoned the place, passing through the enemy under a truce. Callicratidas took over the fortress and levelled it to the ground, and then, sailing against the Teians, he stole inside the walls of the city by night and plundered it. [5] After this he sailed to Lesbos and with his force attacked Methymne, which held a garrison of Athenians. Although he launched repeated assaults, at first he accomplished nothing, but soon afterward, with the help of certain men who betrayed the city to him, he broke inside its walls, and although he plundered its wealth, he spared the lives of the inhabitants and returned the city to the Methymnaeans. [6] After these exploits he made for Mitylene; and assigning the hoplites to Thorax, the Lacedaemonian, he ordered him to advance by land with all speed and himself sailed on past Thorax with his fleet.

Conon, the Athenian general, had seventy ships which he had fitted out with everything necessary for making war at sea more carefully than any other general had ever done by way of preparation. Now it so happened that he had put out to sea with all his ships when he went to the aid of Methymne; [2] but on discovering that it had already fallen, at the time he had bivouacked at one of the Hundred Isles, as they are called, and at daybreak, when he observed that the enemy's ships were bearing down on him, he decided that it would be dangerous for him to join battle in that place with triremes double his in number, but he planned to avoid battle by sailing outside the Isles and, drawing some of the enemy's triremes after him, to engage them off Mitylene. For by such tactics, he assumed, in case of victory he could turn about and pursue and in case of defeat he could withdraw for safety to the harbour. [3] Consequently, having put his soldiers on board ship, he set out with the oars at a leisurely stroke in order that the ships of the Peloponnesians might draw near him. And the Lacedaemonians, as they approached, kept driving their ships faster and faster in the hope of seizing the hindmost ships of the enemy. [4] As Conon withdrew, the commanders of the best ships of the Peloponnesians pushed the pursuit hotly, and they wore out the rowers by their continued exertion at the oars and were themselves separated a long distance from the others. Conon, noticing this, when his ships were already near Mitylene, raised from his flagship a red banner, for this was a signal for the captains of the triremes. [5] At this his ships, even as the enemy was overhauling them, suddenly turned about at the same moment, and the crews raised the battle-song and the trumpeters sounded the attack. The Peloponnesians, dismayed at the turn of events, hastily endeavoured to draw up their ships to repel the attack, but as there was not time for them to turn about they had fallen into great confusion because the ships coming up after them had left their accustomed position.

Conon, making clever use of the opportunity, at once pressed upon them, and prevented their establishing any order, damaging some ships and shearing off the rows of oars of others. Of the ships opposing Conon not one turned to flight, but they continued to back water while waiting for the ships which tarried behind; [2] but the Athenians who held the left wing, putting to flight their opponents, pressed upon them with increasing eagerness and pursued them for a long time. But when the Peloponnesians had brought all their ships together, Conon, fearing the superior numbers of the enemy, stopped the pursuit and sailed off to Mitylene with forty ships. [3] As for the Athenians who had set out in pursuit, all the Peloponnesian ships, swarming around them, struck terror into them, and cutting them off from return to the city compelled them to turn in flight to the land. And since the Peloponnesians pressed upon them with all their ships, the Athenians, seeing no other means of deliverance, fled for safety to the land and deserting their vessels found refuge in Mitylene. [4]

Callicratidas, by the capture of thirty ships, was aware that the naval power of the enemy had been destroyed, but he anticipated that the fighting on land remained. Consequently he sailed on to the city, and Conon, who was expecting a siege when he arrived, began upon preparations about the entrance to the harbour; for in the shallow places of the harbour he sank small boats filled with rocks and in the deep waters he anchored merchantmen armed with stones.162 [5] Now the Athenians and a great throng of the Mitylenaeans who had gathered from the fields into the city because of the war speedily completed the preparations for the siege. Callicratidas, disembarking his soldiers on the beach near the city, pitched a camp, and then he set up a trophy for the sea-battle. And on the next day, after choosing out his best ships and commanding them not to get far from his own ship, he put out to sea, being eager to sail into the harbour and break the barrier constructed by the enemy. [6] Conon put some of his soldiers on the triremes, which he placed with their prows facing the open passage, and some he assigned to the large vessels,163 while others he sent to the breakwaters of the harbour in order that the harbour might be fenced in on every side, both by land and by sea. [7] Then Conon himself with his triremes joined the battle, filling with his ships the space lying between the barriers; and the soldiers stationed on the large ships hurled the stones from the yard-arms upon the ships of the enemy, while those drawn up on the breakwaters of the harbour held off those who might have ventured to disembark on the land.

The Peloponnesians were not a whit outdone by the emulation displayed by the Athenians. Advancing with their ships in mass formation and with their best soldiers lined up on the decks they made the sea-battle also a fight between infantry; for as they pressed upon their opponents' ships they boldly boarded their prows, in the belief that men who had once been defeated would not stand up to the terror of battle. [2] But the Athenians and Mitylenaeans, seeing that the single hope of safety left to them lay in their victory, were resolved to die nobly rather than leave their station. And so, since an unsurpassable emulation pervaded both forces, a great slaughter ensued, all the participants exposing their bodies, without regard of risk, to the perils of battle. [3] The soldiers on the decks were wounded by the multitude of missiles which flew at them, and some of them, who were mortally struck, fell into the sea, while some, so long as their wounds were fresh, fought on without feeling them; but very many fell victims to the stones that were hurled by the stone-carrying yardarms, since the Athenians kept up a shower of huge stones from these commanding positions. [4] The fighting had continued, none the less, for a long while and many had met death on both sides, when Callicratidas, wishing to give his soldiers a breathing-spell, sounded the recall. [5] After some time he again manned his ships and continued the struggle over a long period, and with great effort, by means of the superior number of his ships and the strength of the marines, he thrust out the Athenians. And when the Athenians fled for refuge to the harbour within the city, he sailed through the barriers and brought his ships to anchor near the city of the Mitylenaeans. [6] It may be explained that the entrance for whose control they had fought had a good harbour, which, however, lies outside the city. For the ancient city is a small island, and the later city, which was founded near it, is opposite it on the island of Lesbos; and between the two cities is a narrow strait which also adds strength to the city. [7] Callicratidas now, disembarking his troops, invested the city and launched assaults upon it from every side.

Such was the state of affairs at Mitylene. [8]

In Sicily164 the Syracusans, sending ambassadors to Carthage, not only censured them for the war but required that for the future they cease from hostilities. To them the Carthaginians gave ambiguous answers and set about assembling great armaments in Libya, since their desire was fixed on enslaving all the cities of the island; but before sending their forces across to Sicily they picked out volunteers from their citizens and the other inhabitants of Libya and founded in Sicily right at the warm (therma) springs a city which they named Therma.165 166

When the events of this year came to an end, in Athens Callias succeeded to the office of archon and in Rome the consuls elected were Lucius Furius and Gnaeus Pompeius.167 At this time the Carthaginians, being elated over their successes in Sicily and eager to become lords of the whole island, voted to prepare great armaments; and electing as general Hannibal, who had razed to the ground both the city of the Selinuntians and that of the Himeraeans, they committed to him full authority over the conduct of the war. [2] When he begged to be excused because of his age, they appointed besides him another general, Himilcon, the son of Hanno and of the same family.168 These two, after full consultation, dispatched certain citizens who were held in high esteem among the Carthaginians with large sums of money, some to Iberia and others to the Baliarides Islands, with orders to recruit as many mercenaries as possible. [3] And they themselves canvassed Libya, enrolling as soldiers Libyans and Phoenicians and the stoutest from among their own citizens. Moreover they summoned soldiers also from the nations and kings who were their allies, Maurusians and Nomads and certain peoples who dwell in the regions toward Cyrene. [4] Also from Italy they hired Campanians and brought them over to Libya; for they knew that their aid would be of great assistance to them and that the Campanians who had been left behind in Sicily, because they had fallen out with the Carthaginians,169 would fight on the side of the Sicilian Greeks. [5] And when the armaments were finally assembled at Carthage, the sum total of the troops collected together with the cavalry was a little over one hundred and twenty thousand, according to Timaeus, but three hundred thousand, according to Ephorus.

The Carthaginians, in preparation for their crossing over to Sicily, made ready and equipped all their triremes and also assembled more than a thousand cargo ships, [6] and when they dispatched in advance forty triremes to Sicily, the Syracusans speedily appeared with about the same number of warships in the region of Eryx. In the long sea-battle which ensued fifteen of the Phoenician ships were destroyed and the rest, when night fell, fled for safety to the open sea. [7] And when word of the defeat was brought to the Carthaginians, Hannibal the general set out to sea with fifty ships, since he was eager both to prevent the Syracusans from exploiting their advantage and to make the landing safe for his own armaments.

When news of the reinforcements which Hannibal was bringing was noised throughout Sicily, everyone expected that his armaments would also be brought over at once. And the cities, as they heard of the great scale of the preparations and came to the conclusion that the struggle was to be for their very existence, were distressed without measure. [2] Accordingly the Syracusans set about negotiating alliances both with the Greeks of Italy and with the Lacedaemonians; and they also continued to dispatch emissaries to the cities of Sicily to arouse the masses to fight for the common freedom. [3] The Acragantini, because they were the nearest to the empire of the Carthaginians, assumed what indeed took place, that the weight of the war would fall on them first. They decided, therefore, to gather not only their grain and other crops but also all their possessions from the countryside within their walls. [4] At this time, it so happened, both the city and the territory of the Acragantini enjoyed great prosperity, which I think it would not be out of place for me to describe. Their vineyards excelled in their great extent and beauty and the greater part of their territory was planted in olive-trees from which they gathered an abundant harvest and sold to Carthage; [5] for since Libya at that time was not yet planted in fruit-trees,170 the inhabitants of the territory belonging to Acragas took in exchange for their products the wealth of Libya and accumulated fortunes of unbelievable size. Of this wealth there remain among them many evidences, which it will not be foreign to our purpose to discuss briefly.

Now the sacred buildings which they constructed, and especially the temple of Zeus, bear witness to the grand manner of the men of that day. Of the other sacred buildings some have been burned and others completely destroyed because of the many times the city has been taken in war, but the completion of the temple of Zeus, which was ready to receive its roof, was prevented by the war; and after the war, since the city had been completely destroyed, never in the subsequent years did the Acragantini find themselves able to finish their buildings. [2] The temple has a length of three hundred and forty feet, a width of sixty, and a height of one hundred and twenty not including the foundation.171 And being as it is the largest temple in Sicily, it may not unreasonably be compared, so far as the magnitude of its substructure is concerned, with the temples outside of Sicily; for even though, as it turned out, the design could not be carried out, the scale of the undertaking at any rate is clear. [3] And though all other men build their temples either with walls forming the sides or with rows of columns, thus enclosing their sanctuaries, this temple combines both these plans; for the columns were built in with the walls,172 the part extending outside the temple being rounded and that within square; and the circumference of the outer part of the column which extends from the wall is twenty feet and the body of a man may be contained in the fluting, while that of the inner part is twelve feet. [4] The porticoes were of enormous size and height, and in the east pediment they portrayed The Battle between the Gods and the Giants in sculptures which excelled in size and beauty, and in the west The Capture of Troy, in which each one of the heroes may be seen portrayed in a manner appropriate to his role. [5] There was at that time also an artificial pool outside the city, seven stades in circumference and twenty cubits deep; into this they brought water and ingeniously contrived to produce a multitude of fish of every variety for their public feastings, and with the fish swans spent their time and a vast multitude of every other kind of bird, so that the pool was an object of great delight to gaze upon. [6] And witness to the luxury of the inhabitants is also the extravagant cost of the monuments which they erected, some adorned with sculptured race-horses and others with the pet birds kept by girls and boys in their homes, monuments which Timaeus says he had seen extant even in his own lifetime.173 [7] And in the Olympiad previous to the one we are discussing, namely, the Ninety-second, when Exaenetus of Acragas won the “stadion,”174 he was conducted into the city in a chariot and in the procession there were, not to speak of the other things, three hundred chariots each drawn by two white horses, all the chariots belonging to citizens of Acragas. [8] Speaking generally, they led from youth onward a manner of life which was luxurious, wearing as they did exceedingly delicate clothing and gold ornaments and, besides, using strigils and oil-flasks made of silver and even of gold.

Among the Acragantini of that time perhaps the richest man was Tellias, who had in his mansion a considerable number of guest-chambers and used to station servants before his gates with orders to invite every stranger to be his guest. There were also many other Acragantini who did something of this kind, mingling with others in an old-fashioned and friendly manner; consequently also Empedocles175 speaks of them as“ Havens of mercy for strangers, unacquainted with evil. ”176 [2]

Indeed once when five hundred cavalry from Gela arrived there during a wintry storm, as Timaeus says in his Fifteenth Book, Tellias entertained all of them by himself and provided them all forthwith from his own stores with outer and under garments. [3] And Polycleitus177 in his Histories describes the wine-cellar in the house as still existing and as he had himself seen it when in Acragas as a soldier; there were in it, he states, three hundred great casks hewn out of the very rock, each of them with a capacity of one hundred amphoras,178 and beside them was a wine-vat, plastered with stucco and with a capacity of one thousand amphoras, from which the wine flowed into the casks. [4] And we are told that Tellias was quite plain in appearance but wonderful in character. So once when he had been dispatched on an embassy to the people of Centoripa and came forward to speak before the Assembly, the multitude broke into unseemly laughter as they saw how much he fell short of their expectation. But he, interrupting them, said, “Don't be surprised, for it is the practice of the Acragantini to send to famous cities their most handsome citizens, but to insignificant and most paltry cities men of their sort.”

It was not in the case of Tellias only that such magnificence of wealth occurred, he says, but also of many other inhabitants of Acragas. Antisthenes at any rate, who was called Rhodus, when celebrating the marriage of his daughter, gave a party to all the citizens in the courtyards where they all lived and more than eight hundred chariots followed the bride in the procession; furthermore, not only the men on horseback from the city itself but also many from neighbouring cities who had been invited to the wedding joined to form the escort of the bride. [2] But most extraordinary of all, we are told, was the provision for the lighting: the altars in all the temples and those in the courtyards throughout the city he had piled high with wood, and to the shopkeepers he gave firewood and brush with orders that when a fire was kindled on the acropolis they should all do the same; [3] and when they did as they were ordered, at the time when the bride was brought to her home, since there were many torch-bearers in the procession, the city was filled with light, and the main streets through which the procession was to pass could not contain the accompanying throng, all the inhabitants zealously emulating the man's grand manner. For at that time the citizens of Acragas numbered more than twenty thousand, and when resident aliens were included, not less than two hundred thousand. [4] And men say that once when Antisthenes saw his son quarrelling with a neighbouring farmer, a poor man, and pressing him to sell him his little plot of land, for a time he merely reproved his son; but when his son's cupidity grew more intense, he said to him that he should not be doing his best to make his neighbour poor but, on the contrary, to make him rich; for then the man would long for more land, and when he would be unable to buy additional land from his neighbour he would sell what he now had. [5]

Because of the immense prosperity prevailing in the city the Acragantini came to live on such a scale of luxury that a little later, when the city was under siege, they passed a decree about the guards who spent the nights at their posts, that none of them should have more than one mattress, one cover, one sheepskin, and two pillows. [6] When such was their most rigorous kind of bedding, one can get an idea of the luxury which prevailed in their living generally. Now it was our wish neither to pass these matters by nor yet to speak of them at greater length, in order that we may not fail to record the more important events.

The Carthaginians, after transporting their armaments to Sicily, marched against the city of the Acragantini and made two encampments, one on certain hills where they stationed the Iberians and some Libyans to the number of about forty thousand, and the other they pitched not far from the city and surrounded it with a deep trench and a palisade. [2] And first they dispatched ambassadors to the Acragantini, asking them, preferably, to become their allies, but otherwise to stay neutral and be friends with the Carthaginians, thereby remaining in peace; and when the inhabitants of the city would not entertain these terms, the siege was begun at once. [3] The Acragantini thereupon armed all those of military age, and forming them in battle order they stationed one group upon the walls and the other as a reserve to replace the soldiers as they became worn out. Fighting with them was also Dexippus the Lacedaemonian, who had lately arrived there from Gela with fifteen hundred mercenaries; for at that time, as Timaeus says, Dexippus was tarrying in Gela, enjoying high regard by reason of the city of his birth. [4] Consequently the Acragantini invited him to recruit as many mercenaries as he could and come to Acragas; and together with them the Campanians who had formerly fought with Hannibal,179 some eight hundred, were also hired. These mercenaries held the height above the city which is called the Hill of Athena and is strategically situated overhanging the city. [5] Himilcar and Hannibal, the Carthaginian generals, noting, after they had surveyed the walls, that in one place the city was easily assailable, advanced two enormous towers against the walls. During the first day they pressed the siege from these towers, and after inflicting many casualties then sounded the recall for their soldiers; but when night had fallen the defenders of the city launched a counter-attack and burned the siege-engines.

Hannibal, being eager to launch assaults in an increasing number of places, ordered the soldiers to tear down the monuments and tombs and to build mounds extending to the walls. But when these works had been quickly completed because of the united labour of many hands, a deep superstitious fear fell upon the army. [2] For it happened that the tomb of Theron,180 which was exceedingly large, was shaken by a stroke of lightning; consequently, when it was being torn down, certain soothsayers, presaging what might happen, forbade it, and at once a plague broke out in the army, and many died of it while not a few suffered tortures and grievous distress. [3] Among the dead was also Hannibal the general, and among the watch-guards who were sent out there were some who reported that in the night spirits of the dead were to be seen. Himilcar, on seeing how the throng was beset with superstitious fear, first of all put a stop to the destruction of the monuments, and then he supplicated the gods after the custom of his people by sacrificing a young boy to Cronus and a multitude of cattle to Poseidon by drowning them in the sea. He did not, however, neglect the siege works, but filling up the river which ran beside the city as far as the walls, he advanced all his siege-engines against them and launched daily assaults. [4]

The Syracusans, seeing that Acragas was under siege and fearing lest the besieged might suffer the same fate as befell the Selinuntians and Himeraeans,181 had long been eager to send them their aid, and when at this juncture allied troops arrived from Italy and Messene they elected Daphnaeus182 general. [5] Collecting their forces they added along the way soldiers from Camarina and Gela, and summoning additional troops from the peoples of the interior they made their way towards Acragas, while thirty of their ships sailed along beside them. The forces which they had numbered in all more than thirty thousand infantry and not less than five thousand cavalry.

When Himilcon learned of the approach of the enemy, he dispatched to meet them both his Iberians and his Campanians and more than forty thousand other troops. The Syracusans had already crossed the Himera River when the barbarians met them, and in the long battle which ensued the Syracusans were victorious and slew more than six thousand men. [2] They would have crushed the whole army completely and pursued it all the way to the city, but since the soldiers were pressing the pursuit without order, the general was concerned lest Himilcar should appear with the rest of his army and retrieve the defeat. For he remembered also how the Himeraeans had been utterly destroyed for the same reason.183 However, when the barbarians were in flight to their camp before Acragas, the soldiers in the city, seeing the defeat of the Carthaginians, begged their generals to lead them out, saying that the opportunity had come to destroy the host of the enemy. [3] But the generals, whether they had been bribed, as the report ran, or feared that Himilcon would seize the city if it were stripped of defenders, checked the ardour of their men. So the fleeing men quite safely made good their escape to the camp before the city. When Daphnaeus with his army arrived at the encampment which the barbarians had deserted, he took up his quarters there. [4] At once both the soldiers from the city mingled with his troops and Dexippus accompanied his men, and the multitude gathered in a tumultuous throng in an assembly, everyone being vexed that the opportunity had been let slip and that although they had the barbarians in their power, they had not inflicted on them the punishment they deserved, but that the generals in the city, although able to lead them forth to attack and destroy the host of the enemy, had let so many myriads of men off scot-free. [5] While great uproar and tumult prevailed in the assembly, Menes of Camarina, who had been put in command, came forward and lodged an accusation against the Acragantine generals and so incited all who were present that, when the accused tried to offer a defence, no one would let them speak and the multitude began to throw stones and killed four of them, but the fifth, Argeius by name, who was very much younger, they spared. Dexippus the Lacedaemonian, we are told, also was the object of abuse on the ground that, although he held a position of command and was reputed to be not inexperienced in warfare, he had acted as he did treacherously.

After the assembly Daphnaeus led forth his forces and undertook to lay siege to the camp of the Carthaginians, but when he saw that it had been fortified with great outlay, he gave up that design; however, by covering the roads with his cavalry he seized such as were foraging, and by cutting off the transport of supplies brought them into serious straits. [2] The Carthaginians, not daring to wage a pitched battle and being hard pinched by lack of food, were enduring great misfortunes. For many of the soldiers were dying of want, and the Campanians together with the other mercenaries, almost in a body, forced their way to the tent of Himilcar and demanded the rations which had been agreed upon; and if these were not given them, they threatened to go over to the enemy. [3] But Himilcar had learned from some source that the Syracusans were conveying a great amount of grain to Acragas by sea. Consequently, since this was the only hope he had of salvation, he persuaded the soldiers to wait a few days, giving them as a pledge the goblets belonging to the troops from Carthage. [4] He then summoned forty triremes from Panormus and Motye and planned an attack upon the ships which were bringing the supplies; and the Syracusans, because up to this time the barbarians had retired from the sea and winter had already set in, held the Carthaginians in contempt, feeling assured that they would not again have the courage to man their triremes. [5] Consequently, since they gave little concern to the convoying of the supplies, Himilcar, sailing forth unawares with forty triremes, sank eight of their warships and pursued the rest to the beach; and by capturing all the remaining vessels he effected such a reversal in the expectations of both sides that the Campanians who were in the service of the Acragantini, considering the position of the Greeks to be hopeless, were bought off for fifteen talents and went over to the Carthaginians. [6]

The Acragantini at first, when the Carthaginians were faring badly, had enjoyed their grain and other supplies without stint, expecting all the while that the siege would be quickly lifted; but when the hopes of the barbarians began to rise and so many myriads of human beings were gathered into one city, the grain was exhausted before they were aware of it. [7] And the story is told that also Dexippus the Lacedaemonian was corrupted by a bribe of fifteen talents; for without hesitation he replied to a question of the generals of the Italian Greeks, “Yes, it's better if the war is settled somewhere else, for our provisions have failed.” Consequently the generals, offering as their excuse that the time agreed upon for the campaign had elapsed, led their troops off to the Strait.184 [8] After the departure of these troops the generals met with the commanders and decided to make a survey of the supply of grain in the city, and when they discovered that it was quite low, they perceived that they were compelled to desert the city. At once, then, they issued orders that all should leave on the next night.

With such a throng of men, women, and children deserting the city, at once endless lamentation and tears pervaded all homes. For while they were panic-stricken from fear of the enemy, at the same time they were also under necessity, because of their haste, of leaving behind as booty for the barbarians the possessions on which they had based their happiness; for when Fortune was robbing them of the comforts they enjoyed in their homes, they thought that they should be content that at least they were preserving their lives. [2] And one could see the abandonment not only of the opulence of so wealthy a city but also of a multitude of human beings. For the sick were neglected by their relatives, everyone taking thought for his own safety, and those who were already far advanced in years were abandoned because of the weakness of old age; and many, reckoning even separation from their native city to be the equivalent of death, laid hands upon themselves in order that they might breathe their last in the dwellings of their ancestors. [3] However, the multitude which left the city was given armed escort by the soldiers to Gela; and the highway and all parts of the countryside which led away toward the territory of the Geloans were crowded with women and children intermingled with maidens, who, changing from the pampered life to which they had been accustomed to a strenuous journey by foot and extreme hardship, held out to the end, since fear nerved their souls. [4] Now these got safely to Gela185 and at a later time made their home in Leontini, the Syracusans having given them this city for their dwelling-place.

Himilcar, leading his army at dawn within the walls, put to death practically all who had been left behind; yes, even those who had fled for safety to the temples the Carthaginians hauled out and slew. [2] And we are told that Tellias, who was the foremost citizen in wealth and honourable character, shared in the misfortune of his country: He had decided to take refuge with certain others in the temple of Athena, thinking that the Carthaginians would refrain from acts of lawlessness against the gods, but when he saw their impiety, he set fire to the temple and burned himself together with the dedications in it. For by one deed, he thought, he would withhold from the gods impiety, from the enemy a vast store of plunder, and from himself, most important of all, certain physical indignity. [3] But Himilcar, after pillaging and industriously ransacking the temples and dwellings, collected as great a store of booty as a city could be expected to yield which had been inhabited by two hundred thousand people, had gone unravaged since the date of its founding, had been well-nigh the wealthiest of the Greek cities of that day, and whose citizens, furthermore, had shown their love of the beautiful in expensive collections of works of art of every description. [4] Indeed a multitude of paintings executed with the greatest care was found and an extraordinary number of sculptures of every description and worked with great skill. The most valuable pieces, accordingly, Himilcar sent to Carthage, among which, as it turned out, was the bull of Phalaris,186 and the rest of the pillage he sold as booty. [5] As regards this bull, although Timaeus in his History has maintained that it never existed at all, he has been refuted by Fortune herself; for some two hundred and sixty years after the capture of Acragas, when Scipio sacked Carthage,187 he returned to the Acragantini, together with their other possessions still in the hands of the Carthaginians, the bull, which was still in Acragas at the time this history was being written. [6]

I have been led to speak of this matter rather copiously because Timaeus, who criticized most bitterly the historians before his time and left the writers of history bereft of all forgiveness, is himself caught improvising in the very province where he most proclaims his own accuracy. [7] For historians should, in my opinion, be granted charity in errors that come of ignorance, since they are human beings and since the truth of ages past is hard to discover, but historians who deliberately do not give the exact facts should properly be open to censure, whenever in flattering one man or another or in attacking others from hatred too bitterly, they stray from the truth.

Since Himilcar, after besieging the city for eight months, had taken it shortly before the winter solstice,188 he did not destroy it at once, in order that his forces might winter in the dwellings. But when the misfortune that had befallen Acragas was noised abroad, such fear took possession of the island that of the Sicilian Greeks some removed to Syracuse and others transferred their children and wives and all their possessions to Italy. [2] The Acragantini who had escaped being taken captive, when they arrived in Syracuse, lodged accusations against their generals, asserting that it was due to their treachery that their country had perished. And it so happened that the Syracusans also came in for censure by the rest of the Sicilian Greeks, because, as they charged, they elected the kind of leaders through whose fault the whole of Sicily ran the risk of destruction. [3] Nevertheless, even though an assembly of the people was held in Syracuse and great fears hung over them, not a man would venture to offer any counsel respecting the war. While everyone was at a loss what to do, Dionysius, the son of Hermocrates, taking the floor, accused the generals of betraying their cause to the Carthaginians and stirred up the assemblage to exact punishment of them, urging them not to await the futile procedure prescribed by the laws but to pass judgement upon them at once. [4] And when the archons, in accordance with the laws, laid a fine upon Dionysius on the charge of raising an uproar, Philistus, who later composed his History,189 a man of great wealth, paid the fine and urged Dionysius to speak out whatever he had had in his mind to say. And when Philistus went on to say that if they wanted to fine Dionysius throughout the whole day he would provide the money for him, from then on Dionysius, full of confidence, kept stirring up the multitude, and throwing the assembly into confusion he accused the generals of taking bribes to put the security of the Acragantini in jeopardy. And he also denounced the rest of the most renowned citizens, presenting them as friends of oligarchy. [5] Consequently he advised them to choose as generals not the most influential citizens, but rather those who were the best disposed and most favourable to the people; for the former, he maintained, ruling the citizens as they do in a despotic manner, hold the many in contempt and consider the misfortunes of their country their own source of income, whereas the more humble will do none of such things, since they fear their own weakness.

Dionysius, by suiting every word of his harangue to the people to the predilection of his hearers and his own personal design, stirred the anger of the assembly to no small degree; for the people, which for some time past had hated the generals for what they considered to be their bad conduct of the war and at the moment were spurred on by what was being said to them, immediately dismissed some of them from office and chose other generals, among whom was also Dionysius, who enjoyed the reputation of having shown unusual bravery in the battles against the Carthaginians and was admired of all the Syracusans. Having become elated, therefore, in his hopes, he tried every device to become tyrant of his country. [2] For example, after assuming office he neither participated in the meetings of the generals nor associated with them in any way; and while acting in this manner he spread the report that they were carrying on negotiations with the enemy. For in this way he hoped that he could most effectively strip them of their power and clothe himself alone with the office of general. [3]

While Dionysius was acting in this fashion, the most respectable citizens suspected what was taking place and in every gathering spoke disparagingly of him, but the common crowd, being ignorant of his scheme, gave him their approbation and declared that at long last the city had found a steadfast leader. [4] However, when the assembly convened time and again to consider preparations for the war, Dionysius, observing that fear of the enemy had struck the Syracusans with terror, advised them to recall the exiles; [5] for it was absurd, he said, to seek aid from peoples of other states in Italy and the Peloponnesus and to be unwilling to enlist the assistance of their fellow citizens in facing their own dangers, citizens who, although the enemy kept promising them great rewards for their military co-operation, chose rather to die as wanderers on foreign soil than plan some hostile act against their native land. [6] And in fact, he declared, men who were now in exile because of past civil strife in the city, if at this time they were the recipients of this benefaction, would fight with eagerness, showing in this way their appreciation to their benefactors. After reciting many arguments for this proposal that bore on the situation, he won the votes of the Syracusans to his view; for no one of his colleagues in office dared oppose him in the matter both because of the eagerness shown by the multitude and because each observed that he himself would gain only enmity, while Dionysius would reap a reward of gratitude from those who had received kindness from him. [7] Dionysius took this course in the hope that he would win the exiles for himself, men who wished a change and would be favourably disposed toward the establishment of a tyranny; for they would be happy to witness the murder of their enemies, the confiscation of their property, and the restoration to themselves of their possessions. And when finally the resolution regarding the exiles was passed, these returned at once to their native land.

When messages were brought from Gela requesting the dispatch of additional troops, Dionysius got a favourable means of accomplishing his own purpose. Having been dispatched with two thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry, he arrived speedily at the city of the Geloans, which at that time was under the eye of Dexippus, the Lacedaemonian, who had been put in charge by the Syracusans. [2] And when Dionysius on arrival found the wealthiest citizens engaged in strife with the people, he accused them in an assembly and secured their condemnation, whereupon he put them to death and confiscated their possessions. With the money thus gained he paid the guards of the city under the command of Dexippus the wages which were owing them, while to his own troops who had come with him from Syracuse he promised he would pay double the wages which the city had determined. [3] In this manner he won over to himself the loyalty not only of the soldiers in Gela but also of those whom he had brought with him. He also gained the approval of the populace of the Geloans, who believed him to be responsible for their liberation; for in their envy of the most influential citizens they stigmatized the superiority these men possessed as a despotism over themselves. [4] Consequently they dispatched ambassadors who sang his praises in Syracuse and reported decrees in which they honoured him with rich gifts. Dionysius also undertook to persuade Dexippus to associate himself with his design, and when Dexippus would not join with him, he was on the point of returning with his own troops to Syracuse. [5] But the Geloans, on learning that the Carthaginians with their entire host were going to make Gela the first object of attack, besought Dionysius to remain and not to stand idly by while they suffered the same fate as the Acragantini. Dionysius replied to them that he would return speedily with a larger force and set forth from Gela with his own soldiers.

A play was being presented in Syracuse and Dionysius arrived in the city at the time when the people were leaving the theatre. When the populace rushed in throngs to him and were questioning him about the Carthaginians, they were unaware, he said, that they had more dangerous enemies than their foreign foes—the men within the city in charge of the public interests; these men the citizens trusted while they held public festivals, but these very men, while plundering the public funds, had let the soldiers go unpaid, and although the enemy was making their preparations for the war on a scale which could not be surpassed and were about to lead their forces upon Syracuse, the generals were giving these matters no concern whatsoever. [2] The reason for such conduct, he continued, he had been aware of before, but now he had got fuller information. For Himilcon had sent a herald to him, ostensibly to treat about the captives, but in fact to urge him, now that Himilcon had induced a large number of Dionysius' colleagues not to bother themselves with what was taking place, at least to offer no opposition, since he, Dionysius, did not choose to co-operate with him. [3] Consequently, Dionysius continued, he did not wish to serve longer as general, but was present in Syracuse to lay down his office; for it was intolerable for him, while the other generals were selling out their country, to be the only one to fight together with the citizens and yet be at the same time destined to be thought in after years to have shared in their betrayal.190 [4]

Although the populace had been stirred by what Dionysius had said and his words spread through the whole army, at the time every man departed to his home full of anxiety. But on the following day, when an assembly had been convened in which Dionysius won no small approval when he lodged many accusations against the magistrates and stirred up the populace against the generals, [5] finally some of the members cried out to appoint him general with supreme power and not to wait until the enemy were storming their walls; for the magnitude of the war, they urged, made necessary such a general, through whose leadership their cause could prosper; as for the traitors, their case would be debated in another assembly, since it was foreign to the present situation; indeed at a former time three hundred thousand Carthaginians had been conquered at Himera when Gelon was general with supreme power.191

And soon the multitude, as is their wont, swung to the worse decision and Dionysius was appointed general with supreme power. And now, since the situation corresponded to his desires, he proposed a decree that the pay of the mercenaries be doubled; for they would all, he said, if this were done, be more eager for the coming contest, and he urged them not to worry at all about the funds, since it would be an easy task to raise them. [2]

After the assembly was adjourned no small number of the Syracusans condemned what had been done, as if they themselves had not had their way in the matter; for as their thoughts turned to their own state they could imagine the tyrannical power which was to follow. Now these men, in their desire to insure their freedom, had unwittingly established a despot over their country; [3] Dionysius, on the other hand, wishing to forestall the change of mind on the part of the populace, kept seeking a means whereby he could ask for a guard for his person, for if this were granted him he would easily establish himself in the tyranny. At once, then, he issued orders that all men of military age up to forty years should provide themselves with rations for thirty days and report to him under arms at Leontini. This city was at that time an outpost of the Syracusans, being full of exiles and foreigners.192 For Dionysius hoped that he would have these men on his side, desiring as they did a change of government, and that the majority of the Syracusans would not even come to Leontini. [4] However, while he was encamped at night in the countryside, he pretended that he was the object of a plot and had his personal servants raise a tumult and uproar; and after doing this he took refuge on the acropolis, where he passed the night, keeping fires burning and summoning to him his most trustworthy soldiers. [5] And at day-break, when the common people were gathered into Leontini, he delivered a long plausible speech to further his design and persuaded the populace to give him a guard of six hundred soldiers whomsoever he should select. It is said that Dionysius did this in imitation of Peisistratus the Athenian; [6] for he, we are told, after wounding himself, appeared before the assembly alleging that he had been the victim of a plot, and because of this he received a guard at the hands of the citizens, by means of which he established the tyranny.193 And at this time Dionysius, having deceived the multitude by a similar device, put into effect the structure of his tyranny.

For instance Dionysius at once selected such citizens as were without property but bold in spirit, more than a thousand in number, provided them with costly arms, and buoyed them up with extravagant promises; the mercenaries also he won to himself by calling them to him and conversing with them in friendly fashion. He made changes also in the military posts, conferring their commands upon his most faithful followers; and Dexippus the Lacedaemonian he dismissed to Greece, for he was suspicious of this man lest he should seize a favourable opportunity and restore to the Syracusans their liberty. [2] He also called to himself the mercenaries in Gela and gathered from all quarters the exiles and impious, hoping that in these men the tyranny would find its strongest support. While in Syracuse, however, he took up his quarters in the naval station, having openly proclaimed himself tyrant. Although the Syracusans were offended, they were compelled to keep quiet; for they were unable to effect anything now, since not only was the city thronged with mercenary soldiers but the people were filled with fear of the Carthaginians who possessed such powerful armaments. [3] Now Dionysius straightway married the daughter of Hermocrates, the conqueror of the Athenians,194 and gave his sister in marriage to Polyxenus, the brother of Hermocrates' wife. This he did out of a desire to draw a distinguished house into relationship with him in order to make firm the tyranny. After this he summoned an assembly and had his most influential opponents, Daphnaeus and Demarchus, put to death. [4]

Now Dionysius, from a scribe and ordinary private citizen, had become tyrant of the largest city of the Greek world195; and he maintained his dominance until his death, having ruled as tyrant for thirty-eight years.196 But we shall give a detailed account of his deeds and of the expansion of his rule in connection with the appropriate periods of time; for it seems that this man, single-handed, established the strongest and longest tyranny of any recorded by history. [5]

The Carthaginians, after their capture of the city,197 transferred to Carthage both the votive offerings and statues and every other object of greatest value, and when they had burned down the temples and plundered the city, they spent the winter there. And in the springtime they made ready every kind of engine of war and of missile, planning to lay siege first to the city of the Geloans.

While these events were taking place, the Athenians,198 who had suffered a continued series of reverses, conferred citizenship upon the metics and any other aliens who were willing to fight with them; and when a great multitude was quickly enrolled among the citizens, the generals kept mustering for the campaign all who were in fit condition. They made ready sixty ships, and after fitting them out at great expense they sailed forth to Samos, where they found the other generals who had assembled eighty triremes from the rest of the islands. [2] They also had asked the Samians to man and equip ten additional triremes, and with one hundred and fifty ships in all they set out to sea and put in at the Arginusae Islands, being eager to raise the siege of Mitylene. [3] When Callicratidas, the admiral of the Lacedaemonians, learned of the approach of the ships, he left Eteonicus with the land troops in charge of the siege, while he himself manned one hundred and forty ships and hurriedly put out to sea on the other side of the Arginusae. These islands, which were inhabited at that time and contained a small settlement of Aeolians, lie between Mitylene and Cyme and are but a very small distance from the mainland and the headland of Canis. [4]

The Athenians learned at once of the approach of the enemy, since they lay at anchor no small distance away, but refused battle because of the strong winds and made ready for the conflict on the following day, the Lacedaemonians also doing likewise, although the seers on both sides forbade it. [5] For in the case of the Lacedaemonians the head of the victim, which lay on the beach, was lost to sight when the waves broke on it, and the seer accordingly foretold that the admiral would die in the fight. At this prophecy Callicratidas, we are told, remarked, “If I die in the fight, I shall not have lessened the fame of Sparta.” [6] And in the case of the Athenians Thrasybulus199 their general, who held the supreme command on that day, saw in the night the following vision. He dreamed that he was in Athens and the theatre was crowded, and that he and six of the other generals were playing the Phoenician Women of Euripides, while their competitors were performing the Suppliants200; and that it resulted in a “Cadmean victory”201 for them and they all died, just as did those who waged the campaign against Thebes. [7] When the seer heard this, he disclosed that seven of the generals would be slain. Since the omens revealed victory, the generals forbade any word going out to the others about their own death but they passed the news of the victory disclosed by the omens throughout the whole army.

The admiral Callicratidas, having assembled his whole force, encouraged them with the appropriate words and concluded his speech as follows. “So eager am I myself to enter battle for my country that, although the seer declares that the victims foretell victory for you but death for me, I am none the less ready to die. Accordingly, knowing that after the death of commanders forces are thrown into confusion, I designate at this time as admiral to succeed me, in case I meet with some mishap, Clearchus, a man who has proved himself in deeds of war.” [2] By these words Callicratidas led not a few to emulate his valour and to become more eager for the battle. The Lacedaemonians, exhorting one another, entered their ships, and the Athenians, after hearing the exhortations of their generals summoning them to the struggle, manned the triremes in haste and all took their positions. [3] Thrasyllus commanded the right wing and also Pericles, the son of the Pericles who, by reason of his influence, had been dubbed “The Olympian”; and he associated with himself on the right wing also Theramenes, giving him a command. At the time Theramenes was on the campaign as a private citizen, although formerly he had often been in command of armaments. The rest of the generals he stationed along the entire line, and the Arginusae Islands, as they are called, he enclosed by his battle order, since he wished to extend his ships as far as possible. [4] Callicratidas put out to sea holding himself the right flank, and the left he entrusted to the Boeotians, who were commanded by Thrasondas the Theban. And since he was unable to make his line equal to that of the enemy by reason of the large space occupied by the islands, he divided his force, and forming two fleets fought two battles separately, one on each wing. [5] Consequently he aroused great amazement in the spectators on many sides, since there were four fleets engaged and the ships that had been gathered into one place did not lack many of being three hundred. For this is the greatest sea-battle on record of Greeks against Greeks.

At the very moment when the admirals gave orders to sound the trumpets the whole host on each side, raising the war-cry in turn, made a tremendous shout; and all, as they enthusiastically struck the waves, vied with one another, every man being anxious to be the first to begin the battle. [2] For the majority were experienced in fighting, because the war had endured so long, and they displayed insuperable enthusiasm, since it was the choicest troops who had been gathered for the decisive contest; for all took it for granted that the conquerors in this battle would put an end to the war. [3] But Callicratidas especially, since he had heard from the seer of the end awaiting him, was eager to compass for himself a death that would be most renowned. Consequently he was the first to drive at the ship of Lysias the general, and shattering it at the first blow together with the triremes accompanying it, he sank it; and as for the other ships, some he rammed and made unseaworthy and from others he tore away the rows of oars and rendered them useless for the fighting. [4] Last of all he rammed the trireme of Pericles with a rather heavy blow and broke a great hole in the trireme; then, since the beak of his ship stuck tight in the gap and they could not withdraw it, Pericles threw an iron hand202 on the ship of Callicratidas, and when it was fastened tight, the Athenians, surrounding the ship, sprang upon, it and pouring over its crew put them all to the sword. [5] It was at this time, we are told, that Callicratidas, after fighting brilliantly and holding out for a long time, finally was worn down by numbers, as he was struck from all directions.203 As soon as the defeat of the admiral became evident, the result was that the Peloponnesians gave way in fear. [6] But although the right wing of the Peloponnesians was in flight, the Boeotians, who held the left, continued to put up a stout fight for some time; for both they and the Euboeans who were fighting by their side as well as all the other Greeks who had revolted from the Athenians feared lest the Athenians, if they should once regain their sovereignty, would exact punishment of them for their revolt. But when they saw that most of their ships had been damaged and that the main body of the victors was turning against them, they were compelled to take flight. Now of the Peloponnesians some found safety in Chios and some in Cyme.

The Athenians, while they pursued the defeated foe for a considerable distance, filled the whole area of the sea in the neighbourhood of the battle with corpses and the wreckage of ships. After this some of the generals thought that they should pick up the dead, since the Athenians are incensed at those who allow the dead to go unburied,204 but others of them said they should sail to Mitylene and raise the siege with all speed. [2] But in the meantime a great storm arose, so that the ships were tossed about and the soldiers, by reason both of the hardships they had suffered in the battle and the heavy waves, opposed picking up the dead. [3] And finally, since the storm increased in violence, they neither sailed to Mitylene nor picked up the dead but were forced by the winds to put in at the Arginusae. The losses in the battle were twenty-five ships of the Athenians together with most of their crews and seventy-seven of the Peloponnesians; [4] and as a result of the loss of so many ships and of the sailors who manned them the coastline of the territory of the Cymaeans and Phocaeans was strewn with corpses and wreckage. [5]

When Eteonicus, who was besieging Mitylene, learned from someone of the defeat of the Peloponnesians, he sent his ships to Chios and himself retreated with his land forces to the city of the Pyrrhaeans,205 which was an ally; for he feared lest, if the Athenians should sail against his troops with their fleet and the besieged make a sortie from the city, he should run the risk of losing his entire force. [6] And the generals of the Athenians, after sailing to Mitylene and picking up Conon and his forty ships, put in at Samos, and from there as their base they set about laying waste the territory of the enemy. [7] After this the inhabitants of Aeolis and Ionia and of the islands which were allies of the Lacedaemonians gathered in Ephesus, and as they counselled together they resolved to send to Sparta and to ask for Lysander as admiral; for during the time Lysander had been in command of the fleet he had enjoyed many successes and was believed to excel all others in skill as a general. [8] The Lacedaemonians, however, having a law not to send the same man twice and being unwilling to break the custom of their fathers, chose Aracus as admiral but sent Lysander with him as an ordinary citizen,206 commanding Aracus to follow the advice of Lysander in every matter. These leaders, having been dispatched to assume the command, set about assembling the greatest possible number of triremes from both the Peloponnesus and their allies.

When the Athenians learned of their success at the Arginusae, they commended the generals for the victory but were incensed that they had allowed the men who had died to maintain their supremacy to go unburied. [2] Since Theramenes and Thrasybulus had gone off to Athens in advance of the others, the generals, having assumed that it was they who had made accusations before the populace with respect to the dead, dispatched letters against them to the people stating that it was they whom the generals had ordered to pick up the dead. But this very thing turned out to be the principal cause of their undoing. [3] For although they could have had the help of Theramenes and his associates in the trial, men who both were able orators and had many friends and, most important of all, had been participants in the events relative to the battle, they had them, on the contrary, as adversaries and bitter accusers. [4] For when the letters were read before the people, the multitude was at once angered at Theramenes and his associates, but after these had presented their defence, it turned out that their anger was directed again on the generals. [5] Consequently the people served notice on them of their trial and ordered them to turn over the command of the armaments to Conon, whom they freed of the responsibility, while they decreed that the others should report to Athens with all speed. Of the generals Aristogenes and Protomachus, fearing the wrath of the populace, sought safety in flight, but Thrasyllus and Calliades and, besides, Lysias and Pericles and Aristocrates sailed home to Athens with most of their ships, hoping that they would have their crews, which were numerous, to aid them in the trial. [6] When the populace gathered in the assembly, they gave attention to the accusation and to those who spoke to gratify them, but any who entered a defence they unitedly greeted with clamour and would not allow to speak. And not the least damaging to the generals were the relatives of the dead, who appeared in the assembly in mourning garments and begged the people to punish those who had allowed men who had gladly died on behalf of their country to go unburied. [7] And in the end the friends of these relatives and the partisans of Theramenes, being many, prevailed and the outcome was that the generals were condemned to death and their property confiscated.

After this action had been taken and while the generals were about to be led off by the public executioners to death, Diomedon, one of the generals, took the floor before the people, a man who was both vigorous in the conduct of war and thought by all to excel both in justice and in the other virtues. And when all became still, he said: [2] “Men of Athens, may the action which has been taken regarding us turn out well for the state; but as for the vows which we made for the victory, inasmuch as Fortune has prevented our paying them, since it is well that you give thought to them, do you pay them to Zeus the Saviour and Apollo and the Holy Goddesses207; for it was to these gods that we made vows before we overcame the enemy.” [3] Now after Diomedon had made this request he was led off to the appointed execution together with the other generals, though among the better citizens he had aroused great compassion and tears; for that the man who was about to meet an unjust death should make no mention whatsoever of his own fate but on behalf of the state which was wronging him should request it to pay his vows to the gods appeared to be an act of a man who was god-fearing and magnanimous and undeserving of the fate that was to befall him. [4] These men, then, were put to death by the eleven208 magistrates who are designated by the laws, although far from having committed any crime against the state, they had won the greatest naval battle that had ever taken place of Greeks against Greeks and fought in splendid fashion in other battles and by reason of their individual deeds of valour had set up trophies of victories over their enemies. [5] To such an extent were the people beside themselves at that time, and provoked unjustly as they were by their political leaders, they vented their rage upon men who were deserving, not of punishment, but of many praises and crowns.

Soon, however, both those who had urged this action and those whom they had persuaded repented, as if the deity had become wroth with them; for those who had been deceived got the wages of their error when not long afterwards they fell before the power of not one despot only but of thirty209; [2] and the deceiver, who had also proposed the measure, Callixenus, when once the populace had repented, was brought to trial on the charge of having deceived the people, and without being allowed to speak in his defence he was put in chains and thrown into the public prison; and secretly burrowing his way out of the prison with certain others he managed to make his way to the enemy at Deceleia, to the end that by escaping death he might have the finger of scorn pointed at his turpitude not only in Athens but also wherever else there were Greeks throughout his entire life. [3]

Now these, we may say, were the events of this year. And of the historians Philistus210 ended his first History of Sicily with this year and the capture of Acragas, treating a period of more than eight hundred years in seven Books, and he began his second History where the first leaves off and wrote four Books.211 [4]

At this same time Sophocles the son of Sophilus, the writer of tragedies, died at the age of ninety years, after he had won the prize eighteen212 times. And we are told of this man that when he presented his last tragedy and won the prize, he was filled with insuperable jubilation which was also the cause of his death. [5] And Apollodorus,213 who composed his Chronology, states that Euripides also died in the same year; although others say that he was living at the court of Archelaus, the king of Macedonia, and that once when he went out in the countryside, he was set upon by dogs and torn to pieces a little before this time. 214

At the end of this year Alexias was archon in Athens and in Rome in the place of consuls three military tribunes were elected, Gaius Julius, Publius Cornelius, and Gaius Servilius. When these had entered office, the Athenians, after the execution of the generals, put Philocles in command, and turning over the fleet to him, they sent him to Conon with orders that they should share the leadership of the armaments in common. [2] After he had joined Conon in Samos, he manned all the ships which numbered one hundred and seventy-three. Of these it was decided to leave twenty at Samos, and with all the rest they set out for the Hellespont under the command of Conon and Philocles. [3]

Lysander, the admiral of the Lacedaemonians, having collected thirty-five ships from his neighbouring allies of the Peloponnesus, put in at Ephesus; and after summoning also the fleet from Chios he made it ready. He also went inland to Cyrus, the son of King Darius, and received from him a great sum of money with which to maintain his soldiers. [4] And Cyrus, since his father was summoning him to Persia, turned over to Lysander the authority over the cities under his command and ordered them to pay the tribute to him. Lysander, then, after being thus supplied with every means for making war, returned to Ephesus. [5]

At the same time certain men in Miletus, who were striving for an oligarchy, with the aid of the Lacedaemonians put an end to the government of the people. First of all, while the Dionysia was being celebrated, they seized in their homes and carried off their principal opponents and put some forty of them to the sword, and then, at the time when the market-place was full, they picked out three hundred of the wealthiest citizens and slew them. [6] The most respectable citizens among those who favoured the people, not less than one thousand, fearing the situation they were in, fled to Pharnabazus the satrap, who received them kindly and giving each of them a gold stater215 settled them in Blauda, a fortress of Lydia. [7]

Lysander, sailing with the larger part of his ships to Iasus in Caria, took the city, which was an ally of the Athenians, by storm, put to the sword the males of military age to the number of eight hundred, sold the children and women as booty, and razed the city to the ground. [8] After this he sailed against Attica and many places, but accomplished nothing of importance or worthy of record; consequently we have not taken pains to recount these events. Finally, capturing Lampsacus,216 he let the Athenian garrison depart under a truce, but seized the property of the inhabitants and then returned the city to them.

The generals of the Athenians, on learning that the Lacedaemonians in full force were besieging Lampsacus, assembled their triremes from all quarters and put forth against them in haste with one hundred and eighty ships. [2] But finding the city already taken, at the time they stationed their ships at Aegospotami217 but afterward sailed out each day against the enemy and offered battle. When the Peloponnesians persisted in not coming out against them, the Athenians were at a loss what to do in the circumstances, since they were unable to find supplies for their armaments for any further length of time where they were. [3] Alcibiades218 now came to them and said that Medocus and Seuthes, the kings of the Thracians, were friends of his and had agreed to give him a large army if he wished to make war to a finish on the Lacedaemonians; he therefore asked them to give him a share in the command, promising them one of two things, either to compel the enemy to accept battle or to contend with them on land with the aid of the Thracians.219 [4] This offer Alcibiades made from a desire to achieve by his own efforts some great success for his country and through his benefactions to bring the people back to their old affection for him. But the generals of the Athenians, considering that in case of defeat the blame would attach to them and that in case of success all men would attribute it to Alcibiades, quickly bade him to be gone and not come near the camp ever again.

Since the enemy refused to accept battle at sea and famine gripped the army, Philocles, who held the command on that day, ordered the other captains to man their triremes and follow him, while he with thirty triremes which were ready set out in advance. [2] Lysander, who had learned of this from some deserters, set out to sea with all his ships, and putting Philocles to flight, pursued him toward the other ships.220 [3] The triremes of the Athenians had not yet been manned and confusion pervaded them all because of the unexpected appearance of the enemy. [4] And when Lysander perceived the tumult among the enemy, he speedily put ashore Eteonicus and the troops who were practised in fighting on land. Eteonicus, quickly turning to his account the opportunity of the moment, seized a part of the camp, while Lysander himself, sailing up with all his triremes in trim for battle, after throwing iron hands on the ships which were moored along the shore began dragging them off. [5] The Athenians, panic-stricken at the unexpected move, since they neither had respite for putting out to sea with their ships nor were able to fight it out by land, held out for a short while and then gave way, and at once, some deserting the ships, others the camp, they took to flight in whatever direction each man hoped to find safety. [6] Of the triremes only ten escaped. Conon the general, who had one of them, gave up any thought of returning to Athens, fearing the wrath of the people, but sought safety with Evagoras, who was in control of Cyprus and with whom he had relations of friendship; and of the soldiers the majority fled by land to Sestus221 and found safety there. [7] The rest of the ships Lysander captured, and taking prisoner Philocles the general, he took him to Lampsacus and had him executed.

After this Lysander dispatched messengers by the swiftest tireme to Lacedaemon to carry news of the victory, first decking the vessel out with the most costly arms and booty. [8] After this, advancing against the Athenians who had found refuge in Sestus, he took the city but let the Athenians depart under a truce. Then he sailed at once to Samos with his troops and himself began the siege of the city, but Gylippus, who with a flotilla had fought in aid of the Syracusans in Sicily,222 he dispatched to Sparta to take there both the booty and with it fifteen hundred talents of silver. [9] The money was in small bags, each of which contained a skytale223 which carried the notation of the amount of the money. Gylippus, not knowing of the skytale, secretly undid the bags and took out three hundred talents, and when, by means of the notation, Gylippus was detected by the ephors, he fled the country and was condemned to death. [10] Similarly it happens that Clearchus224 also, the father of Gylippus, fled the country at an earlier time, when he was believed to have accepted a bribe from Pericles not to make the planned raid into Attica, and was condemned to death, spending his life as an exile in Thurii in Italy. And so these men, who in all other affairs were looked upon as individuals of ability, by such conduct brought shame upon the rest of their lives.

When the Athenians heard225 of the destruction of their armaments, they abandoned the policy of control of the sea, but busied themselves with putting the walls in order and with blocking the harbours, expecting, as well they might, that they would be besieged. [2] For at once the kings of the Lacedaemonians, Agis and Pausanias, invaded Attica with a large army and pitched their camp before the walls, and Lysander with more than two hundred triremes put in at the Peiraeus. Although they were in the grip of such hard trials, the Athenians nevertheless held out and had no trouble defending their city for some time. [3] And the Peloponnesians decided, since the siege was offering difficulties, to withdraw their armies from Attica and to conduct a blockade at a distance with their ships, in order that no grain should come to the inhabitants. [4] When this was done, the Athenians came into dire want of everything, but especially of food, because this had always come to them by sea. Since the suffering increased day by day, the city was filled with dead, and the survivors sent ambassadors and concluded peace with the Lacedaemonians on the terms that they should tear down the two long walls and those of the Peiraeus, keep no more than ten ships of war, withdraw from all the cities, and recognize the hegemony of the Lacedaemonians. [5] And so the Peloponnesian War, the most protracted of any of which we have knowledge, having run for twenty-seven years, came to the end we have described.

Not long after the peace Darius, the King of Asia, died after a reign of nineteen years, and Artaxerxes, his eldest son, succeeded to the throne and reigned for forty-three years. During this period, as Apollodorus the Athenian226 says, the poet Antimachus227 flourished. [2]

In Sicily228 at the beginning of summer Himilcon, the commander of the Carthaginians, razed to the ground the city of the Acragantini, and in the case of the temples which did not appear to have been sufficiently destroyed even by the fire he mutilated the sculptures and everything of rather exceptional workmanship; he then at once with his entire army invaded the territory of the Geloans. [3] In his attack upon all this territory and that of Camarina he enriched his army with booty of every description. After this he advanced to Gela and pitched his camp along the river of the same name as the city. [4] The Geloans had, outside the city, a bronze statue of Apollo of colossal size; this the Carthaginians seized as spoil and sent to Tyre.229 The Geloans had set up the statue in accordance with an oracular response of the god, and the Tyrians at a later time, when they were being besieged by Alexander of Macedon, treated the god disrespectfully on the ground that he was fighting on the side of the enemy.230 But when Alexander took the city, as Timaeus says, on the day with the same name and at the same hour on which the Carthaginians seized the Apollo at Gela, it came to pass that the god was honoured by the Greeks with the greatest sacrifices and processions as having been the cause of its capture. [5] Although these events took place at different times, we have thought it not inappropriate to bring them together because of their astonishing nature.

Now the Carthaginians cut down the trees of the countryside and threw a trench231 about their encampment, since they were expecting Dionysius to come with a strong army to the aid of the imperilled inhabitants. [6] The Geloans at first voted to remove their children and women out of danger to Syracuse because of the magnitude of the expected danger, but when the women fled to the altars about the market-place and begged to share the same fortune as the men, they yielded to them. [7] After this, forming a very large number of detachments, they sent the soldiers in turn over the countryside; and they, because of their knowledge of the land, attacked wandering bands of the enemy, daily brought back many of them alive, and slew not a few. [8] And although the Carthaginians kept launching assaults in relays upon the city and breaching the walls with their battering-rams, the Geloans defended themselves gallantly; for the portions of the walls which fell during the day they built up again at night, the women and children assisting. For those who were in the bloom of their physical strength were under arms and constantly in battle, and the rest of the multitude stood by to attend to the defences and the rest of the tasks with all eagerness. [9] In a word, they met the attack of the Carthaginians so stoutly that, although their city lacked natural defences and they were without allies and they could, besides, see the walls falling in a number of places, they were not dismayed at the danger which threatened them.

Dionysius, the tyrant of the Syracusans, summoning aid from the Greeks of Italy and his other allies, led forth his army; and he also enlisted the larger part of the Syracusans of military age and enrolled the mercenaries in the army. [2] He had in all, as some record, fifty thousand soldiers, but according to Timaeus, thirty thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry, and fifty decked vessels. With a force of such size he set out to the aid of the Geloans, and when he drew near the city, he pitched camp by the sea. [3] For his intent was not to divide his army but to use the same base for the fighting by land as well as by sea; and with his light armed troops he engaged the enemy and did not allow them to forage over the countryside, while with his cavalry and ships he attempted to deprive the Carthaginians of the supplies which they got from the territory of which they were masters. [4] Now for twenty days they were inactive, doing nothing worthy of mention. But after this Dionysius divided his infantry into three groups, and one division, which he formed of the Sicilian Greeks, he ordered to advance against the entrenched camp of their adversaries with the city on their left flank; the second division, which he formed of allies, he commanded to drive along the shore with the city on their right; and he himself with the contingent of mercenaries advanced through the city against the place where the Carthaginian engines of war were stationed. [5] And to the cavalry he gave orders that, as soon as they saw the infantry advancing, they should cross the river and overrun the plain, and if they should see their comrades winning, they should join in the fighting, but in case they were losing, they should receive any who were in distress; and to the troops on the ships his orders were, so soon as the Italian Greeks made their attack, to sail against the camp of the enemy.

When the fleet carried out their orders at the proper time, the Carthaginians rushed to the aid of that sector in an attempt to keep back the attackers disembarking from the ships; and in fact that portion of the camp which the Carthaginians occupied was unfortified, all the part which lay along the beach. [2] And at this very time the Italian Greeks, who had covered the entire distance along the sea, attacked the camp of the Carthaginians, having found that most of the defenders had gone to give aid against the ships, and putting to flight the troops which had been left behind at this place, they forced their way into the encampment. [3] At this turn of affairs the Carthaginians, turning about with the greater part of their troops, after a sustained fight, thrust out with difficulty the men who had forced their way within the trench. The Italian Greeks, overcome by the multitude of the barbarians, encountered as they withdrew the acute angle of the palisade and no help came to them; [4] for the Sicilian Greeks, advancing through the plain, came too late and the mercenaries with Dionysius encountered difficulties in making their way through the streets of the city and thus were unable to make such haste as they had planned. The Geloans, advancing for some distance from the city, gave aid to the Italian Greeks over only a short space of the area, since they were afraid to abandon the guarding of the walls, and as a result they were too late to be of any assistance. [5] The Iberians and Campanians, who were serving in the army of the Carthaginians, pressing hard upon the Italian Greeks, slew more than a thousand of them. But since the crews of the ships held back the pursuers with showers of arrows, the rest of them got back in safety to the city. [6] In the other part the Sicilian Greeks, who had engaged the Libyans who opposed them, slew great numbers of them and pursued the rest into the encampment; but when the Iberians and Campanians and, besides, the Carthaginians came up to the aid of the Libyans, they withdrew to the city, having lost some six hundred men. [7] And the cavalry, when they saw the defeat of their comrades, likewise withdrew to the city, since the enemy pressed hard upon them. Dionysius, having barely got through the city, found his army defeated and for the time being withdrew within the walls.

After this Dionysius called a meeting of his friends and took counsel regarding the war. When they all said that his position was unfavourable for a decisive battle with the enemy, he dispatched a herald toward evening to arrange for the taking up of the dead on the next day, and about the first watch of the night he sent out of the city the mass of the people, while he himself set out about the middle of the night, leaving behind some two thousand of his light-armed troops. [2] These had been given orders to keep fires burning through the entire night and to make an uproar in order to cause the Carthaginians to believe that he was still in the city. Now these troops, as the day was beginning to break, set out to join Dionysius, and the Carthaginians, on learning what had taken place, moved their quarters into the city and plundered what had been left of the contents of the dwellings. [3]

When Dionysius arrived at Camarina, he compelled the residents of that city also to depart with their children and wives to Syracuse. And since their fear admitted of no delay, some gathered together silver and gold and whatever could be easily carried, while others fled with only their parents and infant children, paying no attention to valuables; and some, who were aged or suffering from illness, were left behind because they had no relatives or friends, since the Carthaginians were expected to arrive almost immediately. [4] For the fate that had befallen Selinus and Himera and Acragas232 as well terrified the populace, all of whom felt as if they had actually been eyewitnesses of the savagery of the Carthaginians. For among them there was no sparing their captives, but they were without compassion for the victims of Fortune of whom they would crucify some and upon others inflict unbearable outrages. [5] Nevertheless, now that two cities had been driven into exile, the countryside teemed with women and children and the rabble in general. And when the soldiers witnessed these conditions, they were not only enraged against Dionysius but also filled with pity at the lot of the unfortunate victims; [6] for they saw free-born boys and maidens of marriageable years rushing pell-mell along the road in a manner improper for their age, since the stress of the moment had done away with the dignity and respect which are shown before strangers. Similarly they sympathized also with the elderly, as they watched them being forced to push onward beyond their strength while trying to keep up with those in the prime of life.

It was for these reasons that the hatred against Dionysius was flaring up, since men assumed that he had so acted from this definite plan: by using the dread of the Carthaginians to be lord of the remaining cities of Sicily without risk. [2] For they reckoned up his delay in bringing aid233; the fact that none of his mercenaries had fallen; that he had retreated without reason, since he had suffered no serious reverse; and, most important of all, that not a single one of the Carthaginians had pursued them. Consequently, for those who before this were eager to seize an opportunity to revolt, all things, as if by the foreknowledge of the gods, were working toward the overthrow of the tyrannical power. [3]

Now the Italian Greeks, deserting Dionysius, made their way home through the interior of the island, and the Syracusan cavalry at first kept watch in the hope that they might be able to slay the tyrant along the road; but when they saw that the mercenaries were not deserting him, they rode off with one accord to Syracuse. [4] And finding the guards of the dockyards234 knew nothing of the events at Gela, they entered these without hindrance, plundered the house of Dionysius which was filled with silver and gold and all other costly things, and seizing his wife left her so ill-used235 as to ensure the tyrant's keeping his anger fiercely alive, acting as they did in the belief that the vengeance they wreaked on Dionysius' wife would be the surest guarantee of their holding by each other in their attack upon him. [5] And Dionysius, guessing while on the way what had taken place, picked out the most trustworthy of his cavalry and infantry, with whom he pressed toward the city without checking speed; for he reasoned that he could overcome the cavalry by no other means than by speedy action, and he acted accordingly. For if he should make his arrival even more of a surprise than theirs had been, he had hope that he would easily carry out his design; and that is what happened. [6] For the cavalry assumed that Dionysius would now neither return to Syracuse nor remain with his army; consequently, in the belief that they had carried out their design, they said that he had pretended that in leaving Gela he was giving the slip to the Carthaginians whereas the truth in fact was that he had given the slip to the Syracusans.

Dionysius covered a distance of four hundred stades236 and arrived at the gates of Achradine about the middle of the night with a hundred cavalry and six hundred infantry, and finding the gate closed, he piled upon it reeds brought from the marshes such as the Syracusans are accustomed to use to bind their stucco. While the gates were being burned down, he gathered to his troops the laggards. [2] And when the fire had consumed the gates, Dionysius with his followers made their way through Achradine, and the stoutest soldiers among the cavalry, when they heard what had happened, without waiting for the main body, and although they were very few in number, rushed forth at once to aid in the resistance. They were gathered in the market-place, and there they were surrounded by the mercenaries and shot down to a man. [3] Then Dionysius, ranging through the city, slew any who came out here and there to resist him, and entering the houses of those who were hostile toward him, some of them he killed and others he banished from the city. The main body of the cavalry which was left fled from the city and occupied Aetne, as it is now called. [4] At daybreak the main body of the mercenaries and the army of the Sicilian Greeks arrived at Syracuse, but the Geloans and Camarinaeans, who were at odds with Dionysius, left him and departed to Leontini.

. . .237 Consequently Himilcar, acting under the stress of circumstances, dispatched a herald to Syracuse urging the vanquished to make up their differences. Dionysius was glad to comply and they concluded peace on the following terms: To the Carthaginians shall belong, together with their original colonists, the Elymi and Sicani; the inhabitants of Selinus, Acragas, and Himera as well as those of Gela and Camarina may dwell in their cities, which shall be unfortified, but shall pay tribute to the Carthaginians; the inhabitants of Leontini and Messene and the Siceli shall all live under laws of their own making, and the Syracusans shall be subject to Dionysius; and whatever captives and ships are held shall be returned to those who lost them. [2]

As soon as this treaty had been concluded, the Carthaginians sailed off to Libya, having lost more than half their soldiers from the plague; but the pestilence continued to rage no less in Libya also and great numbers both of the Carthaginians themselves and of their allies were struck down. [3]

But for our part, now that we have arrived at the conclusion of the wars, in Greece the Peloponnesian and in Sicily the first between the Carthaginians and Dionysius, and our proposed task has been completed,238 we think that we should set down the events next in order in the following Book.

1 i.e. from 1184 B.C. to 415 B.C.

2 The Book covers the years 415-404 B.C.

3 415 B.C.

4 The principal sources for this famous incident are Thuc. 6.27-29, 53, 60-61; Plut. Alc. 18-21, and especially Andoc. 1 The faces of the statues were mutilated, and perhaps also τὰ αἰδοῖα (Aristoph. Lys. 1094). Andocides gives the names of those whose goods were confiscated and sold after the mutilation of the Hermae, and many of these are confirmed on a fragmentary inscription (I.G. I（2）. 327, 332).

5 Probably the Diocleides mentioned by Andoc. 1.37 ff., who gives the story in considerable detail.

6 Or “slingers as well as more than seven thousand cavalry from both the citizens and allies.”

7 Cape Lacinium is at the extreme western end of the Tarantine Gulf.

8 Of Messina.

9 Cp. Book 12.83.

10 Cp. chap. 2.

11 Cp. Thuc. 6.61.

12 This was one of the two dispatch boats of the Athenian navy, the other being the Paralus.

13 i.e. in their absence.

14 This was near the Olympieum (Thuc. 6.64.2). The reader is referred to the map at the back of the book, which is based on the account of Thucydides.

15 He is said to have been a dithyrambic poet of Melos who was apparently accused of making blasphemous remarks about Athenian divinities (cp. Lys. 6.17 ff.).

16 Cp. Livy 4.47.

17 414 B.C.

18 This wall of circumvallation was to run from near Trogilus southward to the Great Harbour.

19 Thuc. 7.4.6 speaks of a polichne (“hamlet”) near the Olympieum, which lay west of the centre of the Great Harbour.

20 The Olympieum.

21 22nd December.

22 Ten years, 413-404 B.C. inclusive.

23 413 B.C.

24 i.e, of Ortygia.

25 Thuc. 7.36 describes in considerable detail this strengthening of the bow and its effect upon the tactics of the fighting in the harbour.

26 Thuc. 7.46 says fifteen.

27 27th August, 413 B.C.

28 “Thrice nine days,” according to Thuc. 7.50.4; “another full period of the moon,” according to Plut. Nic. 23.6.

29 Thuc. 7.65 states that these were a device of the Athenians, against which the Syracusans covered the decks of their ships with hides so that the grappling-irons would not take hold.

30 As one ship brushed by another.

31 Thuc. 7.72 states that Nicias agreed to this plan, but gave it up when the sailors, after their hard beating, refused to man the ships.

32 By the Athenians.

33 The seven thousand were formally surrendered and became prisoners of the state; the others were taken by the soldiers as their individual captives, either before the formal surrender or after, as they were picked up over the countryside.

34 An almost starvation fare of about one pint.

35 His words in Plut. Nic. 28.2 are: τοῦ νικᾶν κρεῖττόν ἐστι τὸ καλῶς χρῆσθαι τῇ νίκῃ (“Better than victory is a noble use of victory”).

36 Given as “some eight thousand” in Book 12.38.2.

37 Literally “do an injustice to.” The “weakness” of mankind lies in their being subject to the whim of Fortune. The conqueror of to-day may to-morrow be pleading for mercy from to-day's conquered. We should not shut our eyes to the universal law that a turn of Fortune may make the weak strong, the unfortunate favoured of Fortune. The same thought recurs twice below, chap. 24.4 (ἀδικεῖν) and 6 (ὑπερφρονεῖν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀσθένειαν), where the role of Fortune in the affairs of men is specifically mentioned.

38 King of Persia, 550-529 B.C.

39 “General” of Syracuse, 485-478 B.C. For his great victory over the Carthaginians at Himera see Book 11.22 ff.

40 Not strictly true, since Gelon was tyrant of Gela when he was called to Syracuse by the aristocratic party.

41 It was a boast of the Athenians that their city had always been a refuge for the distressed, such as Orestes and Oedipus and the children of Heracles. The altar of Mercy and its grove were well known to the ancient world and are described at length in one of the more famous passages of the Thebaid (12.481-511; tr. in the L.C.L.) of Statius, who calls it the altar of “gentle Clemency.”

42 Cp. Book 12.61 ff.

43 Around Memphis; cp. Book 11.74-77 passim.

44 Of Persia; cp. Book 12.4.

45 Reference is to the discovery of corn (wheat); although in Book 5.4, 69 Diodorus states that wheat was first discovered in Sicily and from there passed to the Athenians.

46 The “gift of Demeter.”

47 The Eleusinian Mysteries.

48 On the position of proxenus see Book 12.57.2, note. Nicias' speech in opposition to the expedition is given by Thucydides (Thuc. 6.9-14); cp. also his second speech (Thuc. 6.20-23 and Plut. Nic. 12).

49 The general of the forces sent by the Lacedaemonians to the aid of Syracuse; cp. chap. 7.

50 Cp. “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here” (Lincoln, The Gettysburg Oration).

51 This decree was not actually carried out; cp. Book 12.55.8 f.

52 Cp. Book 12.80.5.

53 Cp. Book 12.76.3.

54 Sicily.

55 At the first request of the Syracusans for aid the Lacedaemonians did no more than send their general Gylippus (chap. 7), not wishing to break the peace with Athens. But early in 413 they declared war on Athens, seized and fortified Deceleia in Attica, and began sending troops on merchant ships to Sicily.

56 Plut. Nic. 28.2 and Thuc. 7.86.2 state that Gylippus proposed that the lives of the generals be spared, since he wished to take them back with him to Sparta.

57 Cp. chap. 19.4.

58 Demosthenes and Nicias.

59 Associated with the Athenians. But Diocles had proposed (chap. 19.4) that the allies should be sold as booty.

60 See Book 12.19.

61 412 B.C.

62 Diodorus is most sketchy at this point and in the repetitive passage in chap. 36. A Peloponnesian fleet had been lying off Salamis, possibly hoping to be able to attack the Peiraeus in the midst of the political confusion in Athens; it had then sailed on to Euboea, which was of the utmost importance to Athens now that all Attica was exposed to the Spartan troops stationed in Deceleia. See Thucydides, 8.94-95.

63 In 402 B.C.; cp. Book 14.18.

64 Cicero (Cic. ad Att. 14.12), writing in April, 43 B.C., states that this was an act of Antony, based upon a law of Caesar's presumably passed by the Roman people. Nothing can have come of it, since Sextus Pompeius held the island by late 43 B.C. and lost it to Augustus, who showed no interest in extending Roman citizenship to the provinces on such a wholesale scale. Pliny in his sketch of Sicily (3.88-91) lists, shortly before A.D. 79, several different degrees of civic status for the cities of the island.

65 In 339 B.C.; cp. Book 16.82.

66 Hiero was given the title of “King” in 270 B.C. and probably bore it until his death in 216.

67 Cp. chap. 33.

68 Cp. chap. 36.5.

69 411 B.C.

70 This step was the government of the Five Thousand in place of the oligarchy of the Four Hundred. The old democracy was restored the following year.

71 On the Asian side at the very entrance of the Hellespont.

72 Directly opposite Sigeium.

73 Some eight miles up the Hellespont from the entrance.

74 Also called “Hecabe's Monument” and “Bitch's Monument” (Strabo 7.55; the Cynossema of the Romans, modern Cape Volpo), because one account states that Hecabe (Hecuba) was metamorphosed into a bitch (cp. Eur. Hec. 1273).

75 According to Thucydides (Thuc. 8.81) this meeting between Alcibiades and the Athenian fleet took place before the naval battle.

76 The Assembly in Athens.

77 The island of Cos.

78 Just outside the Troad to the south-east.

79 Of Persians (Thuc. 8.108).

80 i.e. with this year.

81 Modern editions recognize eight Books.

82 The Hellenica of Xenophon covers the years 411-362 B.C., ending with the battle of Mantineia, and the Hellenica of Theopompus, which is not extant, included the years 410-394 B.C.

83 410 B.C.

84 Cp. Book 12.82.

85 As one of the two annually elected suffetes, somewhat similar to the Roman consuls. Evidently Diodorus preferred not to use the unfamiliar title.

86 Cp. Book 11.21-22.

87 Of Sicily.

88 More accurately, the Libyan mercenaries mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

89 Cp. chap. 38.5; Thuc. 8.44.

90 Some ten miles inside the Hellespont on the Asian side.

91 Cp. chap. 37.4 f.

92 Cp. chap. 40.6.

93 Soon after the Athenian disaster at Syracuse (Thuc. 8.95).

94 Strabo (Strabo 9.2.2) quotes Ephorus to the effect that a bridge only two plethra (202 ft.) long spanned the Euripus at Chalcis.

95 i.e. of the Athenian Confederacy.

96 Toward the cost of the war with the Lacedaemonians.

97 Thucydides (Thuc. 3.70 ff.) describes the earlier civil strife on the island.

98 These Messenians had been allowed by the Spartans to leave their country and had been settled in Naupactus by the Athenian general Tolmides in 456 B.C. (cp. Book 11.84).

99 In the middle of the morning.

100 413-399 B.C. He was a great admirer of Greek culture and Euripides was but one of many distinguished Greeks whom he invited to his kingdom.

101 On the north side of the Chersonesus on the Gulf of Melas.

102 The island of Marmora.

103 Cyzicus.

104 The despair of the Lacedaemonians after such a disaster is portrayed in the letter from the vice-admiral to Sparta which is given by Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 1.1.23) and ran as follows: “The ships are gone. Mindarus is dead. The men are starving. We know not what to do.”

105 Endius, an ex-ephor, was an hereditary friend of Alcibiades and had served before on such a mission (Thuc. 5.44.3; Thuc. 8.6.3).

106 From Deceleia, some 13 miles north and a little east of Athens, which the Lacedaemonians had seized and fortified, they could raid the larger part of Attica.

107 The King of Persia, who was contributing to the maintenance of the Peloponnesian fleet, but not as yet so generously as toward the end of the war.

108 409 B.C.

109 Of archon.

110 In 396 B.C.

111 The city of Lilybaeum.

112 The bay and island of the same name lie a little north of Lilybaeum.

113 Cp. Book 11.21.

114 Cp. Book 5.29 for the custom of the Gauls of preserving the heads of warriors they had conquered.

115 Cp. Book 11.21 f.

116 Cp. chaps. 34.4; 40.5; 63.1.

117 To Syracuse.

118 Cp. Book 11.22.

119 Cp. chap. 34.4.

120 Xen. Hell. 1.1.31 states that the new commanders took over the Syracusan ships and troops at Miletus.

121 Hermocrates is carrying on his own war against that part of Sicily held by the Carthaginians.

122 Cp. chap. 54.5.

123 Modern Palermo.

124 Thrasyllus, according to Xen. Hell. 1.2.6 ff. The account is resumed from the end of chapter 53.

125 Cp. sect. 1, first note.

126 On the Hellespont opposite Byzantium.

127 Cp. sect. 1, first note.

128 Editors have been troubled by ἀπολύσας, here translated as “give a separate command,” by pressing the meaning of the word in the sense of “dismiss,” whereas both Alcibiades and Thrasyllus were later engaged together in the raiding of Persian territory. But the word can also mean no more than “separate,” as when a man “separates” (divorces) his wife. Xen. Hell. 1.2.15 ff. states that the troops of Alcibiades refused at first to join with those of Thrasyllus because the latter had just suffered defeat before Ephesus, but later agreed to the union of the two armies after the successful raids. What Alcibiades probably did was to send Thrasyllus ahead, and the generals operated separately for a time.

129 Later one of the accusers of Socrates.

130 Cp. Book 12.63.5.

131 “The Horns,” lying opposite Salamis on the border between Attica and Megara (cp. Strabo 9.1.11).

132 Perhaps here and just below “Sicilian Greeks” should be read for “Lacedaemonians,” since the latter have not been mentioned as being present.

133 Thrasyllus (cp. 64.1, first note.

134 “From sea to sea,” i.e. from Bosporus to Propontis.

135 Or Selymbria, modern Silivri, on the Propontis.

136 Clearchus.

137 i.e. the boats of the Byzantines.

138 Xen. Hell. 1.3.14 ff. does not mention this action in the harbour.

139 408 B.C.

140 The Lacedaemonian base.

141 The sacerdotal family which presided over the Mysteries.

142 Cyrus the Younger, whose later attempt to win the Persian throne is told in Xenophon's Anabasis. Persia had finally decided to throw its power behind the combatant which could not support a fleet without Persian assistance. Cyrus was sent down as “caranus (lord) of all those whose mustering-place is Castolus” (a plain probably near Sardis), i.e. as governor-general of Asia Minor (Xen. Hell. 1.4.3） with abundant funds and orders to support the Lacedaemonians in the war. This decision of the Great King was the death-knell of the Athenian Empire.

143 Cyrus was seventeen years of age.

144 A Persian coin containing about 125 grains of gold, worth approximately one pound sterling or five dollars.

145 On the north side of the large bay before Ephesus.

146 The birthplace of the great Greek physical philosopher Democritus.

147 The fortress in Attica which the Lacedaemonians, on the advice of Alcibiades (cp. chap. 9.2), had permanently occupied.

148 Cp. Book 12.70.

149 The grove of olive-trees, where Plato later had his school, six stades north-west of the Dipylon Gate.

150 In Lydia.

151 This should be Thrasyllus.

152 Alcibiades had acquired castles here and at Bisanthe against some such contingency as this.

153 Cp. Isocrates, On the Team of Horses.

154 “Feared and distrusted in Athens, Sparta, and Persia alike, the most brilliant man of action of his generation, whose judgment of public policies was as unerring as his personal aims, methods, and conduct were wrong, found outlet for his restless energy only in waging private war on the 'kingless' Thracians. Had Athens been able to trust him he might have saved her Empire and destroyed her liberty.” (W.S. Ferguson in Camb. Anc. Hist. 5, p. 354.).

155 Until this time the only chariot race had been that with teams of four horses (cp. Paus. 5.8.10).

156 The ninety-third, 408 B.C.

157 The narrative is resumed from the end of chap. 63.

158 Cp. chap. 61.6.

159 405-367 B.C.

160 407 B.C.

161 Cp. chap. 74.1.

162 Carried on the yard-arms.

163 Presumably the merchantmen mentioned above.

164 The narrative is resumed from the end of chap. 62.

165 It was near Himera (Cic. In Verr. 2.35); the springs are mentioned in Book 4.23.

166 406 B.C.

167 Gnaeus Cornelius (Livy 4.54). The Pompeys were a plebeian house and the consulship was not yet open to plebeians.

168 A recently discovered inscription from Athens, a decree of the Council mentioning Hannibal and Himilcon, has been published by B. D. Meritt, “Athens and Carthage,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Supplementary Volume I (1940), pp. 247-253. Although the inscription is most fragmentary, it would appear that heralds from Carthage had come to Athens in connection with this invasion, and it is certain that the Athenians had sent a mission to confer with Hannibal and Himilcon in Sicily.

169 Cp. chap. 62.5.

170 But cp. Book 4.17.4 where we are told that Heracles planted much of Libya in vineyards and olive orchards.

171 The actual dimensions of this great Olympieum are in English feet (c. 5 mm. longer than the Attic foot): length excluding steps 361 ft.; breadth 173 1/2; height of columns with capitals 62 1/2 (?); diameter of columns at bottom 14.

172 i.e. they were engaged or half-columns; see the frontispiece of this Volume.

173 Timaeus died c. 250 B.C.

174 He was victor not only in the Ninety-second Olympiad (412 B.C.; chap. 34) but also in the Ninety-first (416 B.C.; Book 12.82).

175 The famous fifth-century physical philosopher, a native of Acragas.

176 The third line of the opening lines of his work On Purifications which run (Frag. 112 Diels[5]):“ ὦ φίλοι, οἳ μέγα ἄστυ κατὰ ξανθοῦ Ἀκράγαντος ναίετ᾽ ἀν᾽ ἄκρα πόλεος, ἀγαθῶν μελεδήμονες ἔργων, ξείνων κτλ. ” (“My friends, who make your homes in the great settlement which forms golden Acragas, up on the heights of the city, ye who are careful to perform good deeds,” then the line Diodorus quotes.).

177 A native of Larissa and probably of the generation of Alexander the Great.

178 An amphora was about nine gallons.

179 Cp. chaps. 44.1; 62.5.

180 Tyrant of Acragas, 488-472 B.C.; cp. Book 11.53.

181 Cp. chaps. 57 and 62 respectively.

182 A Syracusan, later executed by Dionysius (infra, chap. 96.3).

183 By a disorderly pursuit; cp. chap. 60 ad fin.

184 Presumably of Messina.

185 A little over 40 miles from Acragas.

186 Cp. Book 9.18-19.

187 In 146 B.C.

188 December 22.

189 Of Sicily, in thirteen Books (Cp. infra, chap. 103.3).

190 Or, following Eichstädt and Reiske, “for it was intolerable for him, while the rest of the generals were selling out the state, not only to fight together with the citizens but also to be thought in after years to have shared in the betrayal.”

191 Cp. Book 11.22.

192 i.e. non-Syracusans.

193 Cp.Hdt. 1.59; Plut. Sol. 30.

194 Cp. chaps. 18.3; 34.4.

195 Probably Syracuse grew to be such before the death of Dionysius.

196 405-367 B.C.

197 Acragas.

198 The narrative is resumed from chap. 79.

199 This should be Thrasyllus.

200 Also by Euripides. Both plays are on the theme of the war of the seven Argive chiefs against Thebes.

201 Cp. Book 11.12.1.

202 A grappling-iron, first introduced in the fighting in the harbour of Syracuse (cp. Thuc. 7.62). Called the “crow” by the Romans, it was used by them with great effectiveness against the Carthaginians in 260 B.C.

203 Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 1.6.33) says that he “fell overboard into the sea and disappeared.”

204 Aelian (Aelian Var. Hist. 5.14) states that the Athenians had a law requiring anyone who happened upon an unburied human body to cast earth upon it.

205 Some fifteen miles west of Mitylene.

206 Xenophon's statement (Xen. Hell. 2.1.7) is more precise and credible. He says that the law forbade a man “to hold the office of admiral twice” and that Lysander was sent as “vice-admiral.”

207 The Erinyes (Furies).

208 A Board which had charge of condemned prisoners and of the execution of the death sentence. They are more commonly referred to simply as “The Eleven.”

209 The “Thirty Tyrants” (cp. Book 14.3 ff.).

210 Of Syracuse (cp. supra, chap. 91.4).

211 Philistus also wrote two more Books on the younger Dionysius (cp. Book 15.89.3), a total of thirteen Books on Sicily.

212 The eighteen firsts are confirmed by the “Victory” inscription (I.G. 2.977a).

213 A philosopher and historian of Athens of the second century B.C. (cp. Book 1.5.1). His Chronology covered the years 1184-119 B.C.

214 405 B.C.

215 Probably the Persian daric, whose bullion worth was about $5.40 or one pound, three shillings.

216 In the Troad about thirty-five miles up the Hellespont.

217 The “Goat-rivers,” about five miles across the strait from Lampsacus.

218 He had retired to two castles in Thrace, one of which was at Pactye, only some twenty miles from where the Athenians were anchored (cp. supra, chap. 74.2).

219 Xenophon (Xen. Hell. 2.1.25 f.) says nothing about this demand of Alcibiades, but only that he urged the generals to base upon Sestus.

220 This account of the battle differs radically from that in Xen. Hell. 2.1.27-28, which is more credible.

221 Some eight miles down the Hellespont from Aegospotami.

222 Cp. chaps. 7; 8; 28 ff.

223 The σκυτάλη was a staff used for writing in code. The Lacedaemonians had two round staves of identical size, the one kept at Sparta, the other in possession of commanders abroad. A strip of paper was rolled slantwise around the staff and the dispatch written lengthwise on it; when unrolled the dispatch was unintelligible, but rolled slantwise round the commander's skytale it could be read. Even if Gylippus had found the dispatch he could not have read it.

224 Called Cleandridas by Thucydides (Thuc. 6.93.2).

225 Xenophon, who was in Athens on the occasion, tells how the news came (Xen. Hell. 2.2.3). “It was at night that the Paralus arrived at Athens with tidings of the disaster, and a sound of wailing ran from Piraeus through the long walls to the city, one man passing on the news to another; and during that night no one slept. . . .” (Tr. of Brownson in the L.C.L.).

226 Cp. 103.5, note.

227 Antimachus of Colophon wrote an epic poem entitled Thebais and an elegiac poem Lyde.

228 The narrative is resumed from the end of chap. 96.

229 Tyre was the mother-city of the colony of Carthage. The Apollo of Tyre, as well as the Apollo who is mentioned in the treaty between the Carthaginians and Philip of Macedon (Polybius 7.9), is generally considered to have been the god Reshef (variously spelled), originally a flame or lightning god of Syria.

230 Cp. Book 17.41.7.

231 And also a palisade built from the timbers (infra, chap. 110.3).

232 Cp. chaps. 57 f., 62, and 90 respectively.

233 To Gela.

234 Where Dionysius had taken up his residence (chap. 96.2).

235 According to Plutarch (Plut. Dion 3.1), she subsequently committed suicide.

236 About 46 miles.

237 Here there was probably an account of the plague which visited the Carthaginian army.

238 Cp. chap. 1.3.