Book 1

arg.0. The contents of the eleventh of the books of Diodorus. On the crossing of Xerxes into Europe. On the battle at Thermopylae. On the sea-battle of Xerxes against the Greeks. How, when Themistocles had outgeneralled Xerxes, the Greeks defeated the barbarians in a sea-battle off Salamis. How Xerxes, leaving Mardonius behind as general with a portion of his forces, departed for Asia. How the Carthaginians with great forces made an expedition against Sicily. How Gelon, having outgeneralled the barbarians, cut down some of them and took others alive. How Gelon, when the Carthaginians begged him, exacted money from them and granted them peace. The judgement concerning the Greeks who proved bravest in the war. The battle of the Greeks against Mardonius and the Persians at Plataea, and the victory of the Greeks. The war of the Romans against the Aequi and the inhabitants of Tusculum. On the construction of the Piraeus by Themistocles. On the assistance sent to the Cumaeans by King Hieron. On the war that arose between the Tarentines and the Iapygians. How Thrasydaeus, the son of Theron and tyrant of the Acragantines, when defeated by the Syracusans, lost his dominion. How Themistocles, having fled to Xerxes and being accused on a capital charge, was acquitted. How the Athenians liberated the Greek cities in Asia. On the earthquake that occurred in Laconia. On the revolt of the Messenians and the Helots from the Lacedaemonians. How the Argives, having razed Mycenae, made the city uninhabited. How the Syracusans put down the kingship descended from Gelon. How, when Xerxes had been treacherously murdered, Artaxerxes became king. On the revolt of the Egyptians from the Persians. On the factional struggles that took place in Syracuse. How the Athenians overcame in war the Aeginetans and Corinthians. How the Phocians made war against the Dorians. How Myronides the Athenian, with few soldiers, defeated the Boeotians who were many times more numerous. On the expedition of Tolmides to Cephallenia. On the war that took place in Sicily between the Egestaeans and the Lilybaeans. On the petalism that was made law in Syracuse. The expedition of Pericles into the Peloponnese. The expedition of the Syracusans into Tyrrhenia. On those in Sicily called the Palici. On the defeat of Ducetius and the unexpected deliverance that befell him.

1.1. Now the book before this, which is the tenth of the whole composition, ended its narrative of events with the year preceding the crossing of Xerxes into Europe, and with the public speeches delivered in the general assembly of the Greeks at Corinth concerning the alliance of Gelon with the Greeks. In this book, completing the continuous course of the history, we shall begin with the expedition of Xerxes against the Greeks, and we shall conclude with the year preceding the expedition of the Athenians against Cyprus under the command of Cimon.

1.2. When Calliades was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Spurius Cassius and Proclus Verginius Tricostus; and among the Eleans the seventy-fifth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Astylus of Syracuse won the stadium-race. In their time Xerxes the king made his expedition against Greece for the following reason.

1.3. Mardonius the Persian was a cousin and brother-in-law of Xerxes, and was most admired among the Persians for his intelligence and courage. This man, being elated in spirit and at the height of his prime, longed to lead great armies; and so he persuaded Xerxes to enslave the Greeks, who were always hostile to the Persians.

1.4. And Xerxes, persuaded by him and wishing to drive all the Greeks from their homes, sent an embassy to the Carthaginians about joint action and made an agreement with them, to the effect that he himself should make war on the Greeks who dwell in Greece, while the Carthaginians should at the same time prepare great forces and subdue those of the Greeks who dwelt about Sicily and Italy.

1.5. In accordance with the agreements, then, the Carthaginians, having gathered a great quantity of money, collected mercenaries from Italy and Liguria, and further from Galatia and Iberia; and in addition to these they enrolled citizen forces from all Libya and from Carthage. Finally, after spending three years on their preparations, they assembled more than three hundred thousand foot-soldiers and two hundred ships.

2.1. Xerxes, vying with the zeal of the Carthaginians, surpassed them in all his preparations by as much as he exceeded the Carthaginians in the multitude of his peoples. He began to build ships along the whole seacoast subject to his command—Egypt and Phoenicia and Cyprus, and besides these Cilicia and Pamphylia and Pisidia, and further Lycia and Caria and Mysia and the Troad and the cities on the Hellespont and Bithynia and Pontus. And, like the Carthaginians, after preparing for three years he equipped more than twelve hundred warships.

2.2. His father Darius also contributed to this, having before his death made preparations for great forces; for he too, having been defeated by the Athenians at Marathon under the command of Datis, was bitterly disposed toward the victorious Athenians. But Darius, when he was already about to cross against the Greeks, was cut off in the midst of his plans by death, while Xerxes, both because of his father's design and because of the counsel of Mardonius, as has been said, resolved to make war on the Greeks.

2.3. When everything was prepared for the expedition, he ordered his admirals to gather the ships at Cyme and Phocaea; and he himself, having collected the foot and cavalry forces from all the satrapies, advanced from Susa. And when he came to Sardis, he sent heralds into Greece, ordering them to go to all the cities and to demand of the Greeks earth and water.

2.4. Dividing his army, he sent off enough men to bridge the Hellespont and to dig through Athos at the neck of the Chersonese, at once making the passage safe and short for his forces, and at the same time hoping by the magnitude of his works to strike the Greeks beforehand with dismay. Those who were sent off for the construction of the works accomplished them quickly because of the multitude of hands at work.

2.5. The Greeks, when they learned the magnitude of the Persians' force, sent ten thousand hoplites into Thessaly to seize the passes about Tempe. Synetus led the Lacedaemonians, and Themistocles the Athenians. These men, sending ambassadors to the cities, asked them to send soldiers to guard the passes in common; for they were eager to enclose all the Greek cities within the defending lines and to make the war against the Persians a common cause.

2.6. But since the majority of the Thessalians and of the other Greeks who dwelt near the passes gave earth and water to the messengers who had come from Xerxes, the Greeks, despairing of the guard at Tempe, returned home.

3.1. It is useful to distinguish those of the Greeks who chose the cause of the barbarians, in order that, meeting with reproach, by their disgrace they may deter any who might become traitors to the common freedom.

3.2. The Aenianians, then, and the Dolopians and the Malians and the Perrhaebians and the Magnesians ranged themselves with the barbarians even while the guard at Tempe was still in place; and the Achaeans of Phthia and the Locrians and the Thessalians and most of the Boeotians inclined to the barbarians after these had departed.

3.3. The Greeks who were sitting in council at the Isthmus voted that those of the Greeks who voluntarily chose the cause of the Persians should be tithed for the gods, should they prevail in the war; and that to those who remained neutral they should send ambassadors to summon them to fight together for the common freedom.

3.4. Of these some genuinely chose the alliance, while others put it off for a sufficient time, clinging only to their own safety and watching for the outcome of the war. The Argives, sending ambassadors to the common council, undertook to fight as allies if they were granted some part of the leadership.

3.5. To these the councilors made plain that, if they thought it more grievous to have a Greek as commander than a barbarian as master, they were right to keep quiet; but if they were ambitious to take the leadership of the Greeks, they said they ought first to have done deeds worthy of it before seeking so great a distinction. After this, when the ambassadors from Xerxes came over Greece and demanded earth and water, all the cities, through their answers, demonstrated their zeal for the common freedom.

3.6. Xerxes, when he learned that the Hellespont had been bridged and Athos had been dug through, advanced from Sardis, making his march toward the Hellespont; and when he came to Abydus, he led his force across into Europe by the bridge. As he proceeded through Thrace, he took on many soldiers both of the Thracians and of the Greeks bordering on them.

3.7. When he came to the place called Doriscus, there he summoned the fleet, so that both forces might be gathered in one place. He also held a review of the whole army; and there were numbered more than eight hundred thousand of the foot, and the warships all together were more than twelve hundred, of which three hundred and twenty were Greek, the Greeks furnishing the crews of men while the king provided the hulls; all the rest were counted as barbarian. Of these the Egyptians furnished two hundred, the Phoenicians three hundred, the Cilicians eighty, the Pamphylians forty, and the Lycians the same number, and besides these the Carians eighty, the Cyprians one hundred and fifty.

3.8. Of the Greeks, the Dorians who dwell near Caria sent, together with the Rhodians and Coans, forty; the Ionians, with the Chians and Samians, one hundred; the Aeolians, with the Lesbians and Tenedians, forty; the Hellespontines eighty, together with those dwelling about the Pontus; and the islanders fifty—for the king had won over the islands within the Cyaneae and Triopium and Sunium.

3.9. Such, then, was the number of the triremes; the horse-transports were eight hundred and fifty, and the thirty-oared galleys three thousand. So Xerxes was occupied about the review of his forces at Doriscus.

4.1. To the councilors of the Greeks, since it had been further reported to them that the forces of the Persians were near, it seemed best quickly to send the naval force to Artemisium in Euboea, seeing that this place was well suited for meeting the enemy, and to Thermopylae enough hoplites to seize beforehand the passes in the narrows and to prevent the barbarians from advancing into Greece; for they were eager to bring within their lines those who had chosen the cause of the Greeks, and to save their allies as far as was possible.

4.2. Eurybiades the Lacedaemonian was in command of the whole fleet, and Leonidas the king of the Spartiates of the men sent to Thermopylae—a man who took great pride in his courage and generalship. He, on receiving the authority, gave orders for only a thousand men to accompany him on the expedition.

4.3. When the ephors said that he was leading a very few against a great force, and ordered him to take more, he said to them in secret that for preventing the barbarians from passing through the narrows the few were enough, but for the deed on which they were now setting out, the many were too few.

4.4. As this answer was riddling and obscure, they asked him whether he intended to lead them on some trivial enterprise. He replied that in word he was leading them to the defense of the passes, but in deed to die for the common freedom; so that, if the thousand should go, Sparta would be the more illustrious when they had perished, but if the Lacedaemonians should march out in full force, Lacedaemon would be utterly destroyed; for none of them would dare to flee in order to obtain safety.

4.5. Of the Lacedaemonians, then, there were a thousand, and with them three hundred Spartiates; and of the other Greeks who were sent out together with them to Thermopylae, three thousand.

4.6. So Leonidas advanced with four thousand toward Thermopylae. The Locrians who dwelt near the passes had given earth and water to the Persians and had undertaken to seize the passes beforehand; but when they learned that Leonidas had come to Thermopylae, they changed their minds and went over to the Greeks.

4.7. There came to Thermopylae also a thousand Locrians and as many Malians, and Phocians not much short of a thousand, and likewise about four hundred Thebans from the other faction; for the inhabitants of Thebes were at variance among themselves about the alliance with the Persians. The Greeks who were marshaled with Leonidas, being such in number, remained about Thermopylae, awaiting the arrival of the Persians.

5.1. Xerxes, after the review of his forces, advanced with the whole army; and as far as the city of Acanthus the whole fleet sailed alongside his foot-army as it marched, but from there they were carried over by the place that had been dug through into the other sea, quickly and safely.

5.2. When he came to the Malian Gulf, he learned that the enemy had occupied the passes beforehand. Therefore there he reinforced his army by summoning his allies from Europe, who fell little short of two hundred thousand, so that he had in all not fewer than a million, apart from the naval force.

5.3. The whole multitude of those in the warships and of those bringing the provisions and the rest of the supplies was not less than the aforesaid; so that it is no wonder what is said about the multitude of the men gathered by Xerxes; for they say that the ever-flowing rivers failed because of the continuous mass, and that the seas were hidden by the sails of the ships. Thus the greatest forces of all that are handed down to historical memory are recorded as those that were with Xerxes.

5.4. When the Persians had encamped beside the river Spercheius, Xerxes sent messengers to Thermopylae, at once to spy out what intention they had concerning the war against him; and he ordered them to make this announcement: that King Xerxes commands all to lay down their arms, and themselves to depart unharmed to their native lands and to be allies of the Persians; and if they did this, he promised to give the Greeks more and better land than that which they now held.

5.5. Leonidas and his men, when they had heard the messengers, replied that, as allies of the king, they would be more useful with their arms; and if forced to make war, they would fight more nobly for their freedom with these; and concerning the land which he promised to give, that it was ancestral to the Greeks to gain land not through baseness but through valor.

6.1. When the king heard from the messengers the answers of the Greeks, he summoned Demaratus the Spartiate, who had fled from his native land to him; and, laughing at their answers, he asked the Laconian whether the Greeks would flee more swiftly than his horses, or would dare to draw up in battle against such great forces.

6.2. Demaratus, they say, replied that not even he himself was ignorant of the courage of the Greeks; for it was with Greek forces that he subdued those who revolted from the barbarians; and so let him not suppose that those who fight better than the Persians for his rule will run less risk against the Persians for their own freedom. But Xerxes, laughing at him, ordered him to follow, that he might see the Lacedaemonians fleeing.

6.3. Taking up his force, he came against the Greeks at Thermopylae, ranging before all the other peoples the Medes—whether because he preferred them for their courage, or because he wished them all to perish; for there was still spirit in the Medes, since the supremacy of their ancestors had not long ago been overthrown.

6.4. He set together with the Medes also the brothers and sons of those who had perished at Marathon, thinking that these would take vengeance on the Greeks most furiously. The Medes, then, marshaled in this way, fell upon those who were guarding Thermopylae; but Leonidas, being well prepared, gathered the Greeks at the narrowest part of the pass.

7.1. As the battle grew fierce, and the barbarians had the king as a spectator of their valor, while the Greeks were mindful of their freedom and were urged on to the contest by Leonidas, the struggle that took place was marvelous.

7.2. For since the battle was hand-to-hand and the blows were dealt at close quarters, and the formation, moreover, was densely packed, for a long time the battle was evenly balanced. But as the Greeks excelled in valor and in the size of their shields, the Medes barely gave way; for many of them fell, and not a few were wounded. The Cissians and Sacae, picked men for valor, were posted behind the Medes and took over the battle; and, fresh against men worn out, they held to the struggle for a little while, but, being killed by Leonidas and his men and overpowered, they gave way.

7.3. For the barbarians, using shields and small targets, had the advantage in open ground, becoming quick in movement; but in the narrows they could not easily wound the enemy, who were closely packed and covered as to their whole bodies by their great shields, while they themselves, being at a disadvantage because of the lightness of their protective arms, were caught by frequent wounds.

7.4. At last Xerxes, seeing the whole region about the passes strewn with corpses, and the barbarians not enduring the valor of the Greeks, sent forward the chosen men of the Persians, called the Immortals and reputed to be foremost in deeds of bravery among those campaigning with him. But when these too, after holding out for a short time, fled, then, as night came on, they were parted, many having been slain among the barbarians, but few having fallen among the Greeks.

8.1. On the next day Xerxes, since the battle had taken an unexpected outcome for him, chose from all the peoples those reputed to excel in courage and daring; and, having earnestly entreated them, he announced beforehand that, if they forced the entrance, he would give them notable rewards, but if they fled, death would be the penalty.

8.2. When these had dashed upon the Greeks with a great concentrated force and violence, Leonidas and his men, packing themselves close together and making their formation like a wall, fought zealously. They advanced so far in their eagerness that they did not allow those who were accustomed to take over the battle by relays to do so, but, prevailing through the continuity of their endurance, they slew many of the chosen barbarians.

8.3. Spending the whole day amid the dangers, they vied with one another: the older men set themselves against the prime vigor of the young, and the younger competed against the experience and the reputations of the older. At last, when even the chosen men fled, those of the barbarians who held the appointed station packed themselves close and would not allow the chosen men to flee; and so they were forced to turn back and fight again.

8.4. As the king was at a loss and believed that no one would dare to fight any longer, there came to him a certain Trachinian of the natives, experienced in the mountainous country. This man, coming to Xerxes, undertook to guide the Persians by a certain narrow and precipitous path, so that those who went with him would get behind Leonidas and his men, and that, being thus surrounded into the middle, they would easily be destroyed.

8.5. The king was overjoyed, and, honoring the Trachinian with gifts, he sent out with him twenty thousand soldiers by night. But a certain man among the Persians named Tyrrhastiadas, a Cymaean by birth, a lover of nobility and good in character, slipping away from the camp of the Persians by night, came to Leonidas and his men and revealed to them, who were ignorant of it, the affair of the Trachinian.

9.1. When the Greeks had heard this, they took counsel about midnight and deliberated about the dangers that were coming upon them. Some, then, said that they ought at once to leave the passes and save themselves by joining the allies, for it was impossible for those who remained to find safety; but Leonidas, the king of the Lacedaemonians, ambitious to surround both himself and the Spartiates with great glory, ordered all the other Greeks to depart and save themselves, in order that they might fight together with the Greeks in the other battles, but said that the Lacedaemonians themselves must remain and not abandon the guard of the passes; for it was fitting that those who led Greece, fighting for the first place, should die readily.

9.2. At once, then, all the others departed, but Leonidas with his fellow-citizens accomplished heroic and astonishing deeds. Though the Lacedaemonians were few—for he kept back only the Thespians—and having in all not more than five hundred, he was ready to meet death for the sake of Greece.

9.3. After this the Persians with the Trachinian, having gone around the rough ground, suddenly cut off Leonidas and his men into the middle; and the Greeks, despairing of safety but choosing glory, with one voice begged their leader to lead them against the enemy, before the Persians should learn of the circuit of their own men.

9.4. Leonidas, welcoming the readiness of his soldiers, ordered them to take their morning meal quickly, as men who would dine in Hades; and he himself, in accordance with his order, took food, thinking that thus he would be able to hold out for a long time and to bear endurance amid the dangers. When they had quickly refreshed themselves and all stood ready, he ordered the soldiers, falling upon the camp, to slay those they met and to rush upon the king's own tent itself.

10.1. These men, then, in accordance with the orders, packed themselves close and by night fell upon the encampment of the Persians, Leonidas leading the way. The barbarians, because of the unexpectedness and the ignorance, ran together out of their tents in disorder with much confusion, and, thinking that those who had marched with the Trachinian had perished and that the whole force of the Greeks was present, were dismayed.

10.2. Therefore many were slain by Leonidas and his men, but still more perished at the hands of their own people, as though by enemies, because of the ignorance. For the night took away true recognition, and the confusion, being throughout the whole camp, naturally caused much slaughter; for they killed one another, the circumstance not allowing accurate scrutiny, since there was neither a commander's order nor an asking of the password nor, in general, any settled state of mind.

10.3. If, then, the king had remained at the royal tent, he too would easily have been slain by the Greeks, and the whole war would have met with a swift conclusion; but as it was, Xerxes had leaped out to the confusion, while the Greeks, bursting into the tent, slew nearly all who were caught in it.

10.4. And while the night lasted they wandered throughout the whole camp, naturally seeking Xerxes; but when day came and the whole situation was revealed, the Persians, observing that the Greeks were few, despised them, and would not engage them face to face, fearing their valor, but, standing about them from the flanks and from behind and shooting arrows and hurling javelins from every side, killed them all. Thus Leonidas and his men who guarded the passes at Thermopylae met with such an end of life.

11.1. Who would not admire their valor? Men who, using a single resolve, did not leave the post assigned to them by Greece, but readily gave up their own lives for the common safety of the Greeks, and chose rather to die nobly than to live shamefully. Nor could anyone disbelieve that the consternation of the Persians came to pass.

11.2. For who of the barbarians would have supposed what had happened? Who would have expected that five hundred in number would dare to attack a million? Therefore who of later men would not emulate the valor of these men, who, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the situation, were worn down in their bodies but were not conquered in their souls? Accordingly these men alone of those remembered, though conquered, have become more glorious than the others who carried off the fairest victories. For one must judge good men not from their outcomes, but from their purpose; for of the one fortune is mistress, but of the other the purpose is the test.

11.3. For who would judge better men than these, who, being not even equal in number to the thousandth part of the enemy, dared to range their own valor against multitudes past belief? They did not hope to prevail over so many myriads, but believed that in manly courage they would surpass all who had come before them, and judged that the fight was theirs against the barbarians, but that the contest and the judgement concerning the prizes of valor was against all who were admired for virtue.

11.4. For they alone of those remembered from of old chose rather to keep the laws of their city than their own lives, not being aggrieved that the greatest dangers stood before them, but judging it most to be prayed for, by those who practice virtue, to meet with such contests.

11.5. One might justly consider these men to be the cause of the common freedom of the Greeks more than those who afterward conquered in the battles against Xerxes; for when these deeds were remembered, the barbarians were dismayed, but the Greeks were spurred on to the like manly courage.

11.6. And in general they alone of all before them, through the excess of their valor, passed over into immortality. Therefore not the writers of histories alone, but many of the poets as well, have sung of their deeds of valor; among whom was Simonides the lyric poet, who composed an encomium worthy of their valor, in which he says of those who died at Thermopylae: Glorious is their fortune, and noble their fate; their grave is an altar; instead of lamentation there is remembrance, and their lot is praise. Such a burial-shroud neither mold nor all-conquering time shall ever dim. This precinct of good men chose for its inhabitant the good fame of Greece. Witness too is Leonidas the king of Sparta, who has left behind a great adornment of valor and everlasting glory.

12.1. Having spoken sufficiently about the valor of these men, we return to what follows upon what has been said. Xerxes, having mastered the passes in the manner described, and having won, as the proverb has it, a Cadmean victory, slew few of the enemy but lost many times as many of his own. And when he had gained control of the passes by land, he resolved to make trial of the contests by sea.

12.2. At once, then, summoning Megabates, the commander of the fleet, he ordered him to sail against the naval force of the Greeks and to attempt with the whole fleet to give battle to the Greeks at sea.

12.3. He, in obedience to the king's orders, put out from Pydna in Macedonia with the whole fleet and put in at the headland of Magnesia called Sepias. There a great wind arose and he lost more than three hundred warships, and a very great number of horse-transports and other vessels. When the wind had ceased he put out and sailed to Aphetae in Magnesia. From there he sent out two hundred triremes, ordering the captains to sail around and, keeping Euboea on their right, to encircle the enemy.

12.4. The Greeks were lying at anchor off Artemisium in Euboea, and had in all two hundred and eighty triremes; and of these one hundred and forty were Athenian, and the rest of the other Greeks. Eurybiades the Spartiate was admiral of these, but Themistocles the Athenian managed the affairs of the fleet; for he, because of his intelligence and generalship, met with great acceptance not only among the Greeks of the fleet, but also with Eurybiades himself, and all, attending to him, readily obeyed him.

12.5. When a council was held among the captains of the ships concerning the sea-battle, all the others judged it best to keep quiet and to await the enemy's onset, but Themistocles alone declared the contrary opinion, teaching that it was advantageous to sail with the whole fleet in formation against the enemy; for thus they would have the advantage, sailing in a mass against men whose order was scattered because of confusion, since they were putting out from many separated harbors. Finally, in accordance with Themistocles' judgement, the Greeks sailed against the enemy with the whole fleet.

12.6. As the barbarians were putting out from many harbors, at first Themistocles and his men, engaging the Persians while they were scattered, sank many ships and forced not a few to flee, pursuing them as far as the land. After this, when the whole fleet had assembled and a violent sea-battle took place, each side prevailed with part of its ships, but neither, having gained the advantage with a complete victory, was parted when night came on.

13.1. After the sea-battle a great storm arose and destroyed many of the ships lying at anchor outside the harbor, so that it seemed that the divine power was taking the part of the Greeks, in order that, when the multitude of barbarian ships had been brought low, the force of the Greeks might become a match for them and adequate for the sea-battles. Therefore the Greeks ever grew more confident, but the barbarians ever became more timid in the face of the dangers. Nevertheless, recovering themselves from the shipwreck, they put out against the enemy with all their ships.

13.2. The Greeks, when fifty Attic triremes had joined them, drew up against the barbarians. Their sea-battle was much like the battles at Thermopylae; for the Persians had resolved to force the Greeks back and to sail through the Euripus, while the Greeks, blocking the narrows, fought in defense of their allies within Euboea. As a violent sea-battle took place, many ships on both sides were destroyed, and when night came on they were compelled to turn back to their own harbors. They say that in both sea-battles the Athenians proved bravest among the Greeks, and the Sidonians among the barbarians.

13.3. After this the Greeks, hearing what had happened at Thermopylae and learning also that the Persians were advancing on Athens by land, were dispirited; therefore, sailing off to Salamis, they tarried there.

13.4. The Athenians, seeing that those in Athens were in danger of utter destruction, put their children and wives and as many of their other goods as was possible aboard the ships and conveyed them to Salamis.

13.5. The admiral of the Persians, learning of the enemy's departure, put in at Euboea with the whole fleet, and, having taken the city of the Histiaeans by force and plundered it, he ravaged their land.

14.1. While these things were being done, Xerxes, having broken camp from Thermopylae, advanced through the country of the Phocians, sacking the cities and destroying the possessions throughout the land. The Phocians had chosen the cause of the Greeks, and, seeing that they were not a match for the enemy, abandoned all their cities in full force and took refuge in the rugged regions on Parnassus.

14.2. After this the king, passing through the country of the Dorians, did them no harm, for they were allies of the Persians; and there he left part of his force and ordered them to go to Delphi and to burn the precinct of Apollo and to plunder the votive offerings, while he himself, advancing with the rest of the barbarians into Boeotia, encamped there.

14.3. Those who were sent to plunder the oracle advanced as far as the temple of Athena Pronaea; but there, contrary to expectation, great rainstorms and many thunderbolts fell from the heavens, and besides these the storms broke off great rocks and hurled them into the camp of the barbarians, so that it came about that many of the Persians were destroyed, and all, dismayed at the working of the gods, fled from the place.

14.4. The oracle at Delphi, then, by some divine providence escaped plundering; and the Delphians, wishing to leave to later generations an immortal record of the manifestation of the gods, set up a trophy beside the temple of Athena Pronaea, on which they inscribed this elegy: A memorial of the war that wards off men, and a witness of victory, the Delphians set me up, doing a grace to Zeus together with Phoebus, when they had thrust back the city-sacking column of the Medes and saved the bronze-crowned precinct.

14.5. Xerxes, passing through Boeotia, destroyed the country of the Thespians and burned Plataea, which was deserted; for the inhabitants of these cities had fled to the Peloponnese in full force. After this, invading Attica, they ravaged the country, razed Athens, and burned the temples of the gods. And while the king was busy about these things, the fleet sailed from Euboea to Attica, having plundered both Euboea and the coast of Attica.

15.1. At this time the Corcyraeans, having manned sixty triremes, were tarrying about the Peloponnese—as they themselves say, because they could not round the cape about Malea, but, as some of the historians record, watching for the turns of the war, so that, if the Persians prevailed, they might give them earth and water, but if the Greeks conquered, they might seem to have come to their aid.

15.2. The Athenians who were tarrying about Salamis, seeing Attica laid waste with fire and hearing that the precinct of Athena had been razed, were terribly dispirited. Likewise great fear held the other Greeks too, who had been driven together from every side into the Peloponnese itself. It seemed best to them, then, that all those appointed to command should sit in council and deliberate in what places it was advantageous to make the sea-battle.

15.3. When many and various speeches had been delivered, the Peloponnesians, caring only for their own safety, said that it was necessary to make the contest about the Isthmus; for, since it had been well walled, if any disaster occurred in the sea-battle, those who had failed would be able to flee to the most ready safety of the Peloponnese; but if they shut themselves up in the small island of Salamis, they would fall into troubles hard to remedy.

15.4. Themistocles, however, advised making the contest of the ships about Salamis; for those fighting it out with few vessels against many times their number would have many advantages in the narrows. And in general he declared that the place about the Isthmus would be wholly unsuited for the sea-battle; for the contest would be in the open sea, and the Persians, because of the open space, would easily wear down the few ships with their many times more numerous. And, discussing many other points suited to the situation, he persuaded them all to become of his mind in this matter.

16.1. At last, when a common decree had been made to fight at sea off Salamis, the Greeks made their preparations against the Persians and for the danger. Eurybiades, then, taking Themistocles with him, undertook to exhort the multitudes and to encourage them in the face of the impending danger. The multitude, however, would not obey; but, all being dismayed at the magnitude of the Persian forces, no one paid heed to the commanders, but each was eager to sail out from Salamis to the Peloponnese.

16.2. No less did the land-army of the Greeks too fear the forces of the enemy; and the loss at Thermopylae of the most notable men caused consternation, and the disasters in Attica, being before their eyes, produced much despondency among the Greeks.

16.3. The councilors of the Greeks, seeing the confusion of the crowds and the general consternation, voted to wall off the Isthmus. And as the works were quickly completed because of their eagerness and the multitude of the workers, the Peloponnesians fortified the wall, which extended for forty stadia from Lechaeum to Cenchreae; but those who were tarrying in Salamis with the whole fleet were so dismayed that they no longer obeyed their commanders.

17.1. Themistocles, seeing that the admiral Eurybiades was unable to overcome the impulse of the multitude, and that the difficult terrain about Salamis could contribute much toward victory, devised some such scheme as this. He persuaded a certain man to desert to Xerxes and to assure him that the ships at Salamis were about to slip away from the place and gather at the Isthmus.

17.2. Therefore the king, trusting because of the plausibility of what was reported, was eager to prevent the naval forces of the Greeks from drawing near to the land-armies. At once, then, he sent out the Egyptian fleet, ordering it to block the strait between Salamis and the territory of Megaris. And the rest of the mass of ships he sent against Salamis, ordering them to engage the enemy and to decide the contest by a sea-battle. The triremes were drawn up in order by nations, in order that, because of their common speech and acquaintance, they might readily help one another.

17.3. The naval fleet having been thus arrayed, the Phoenicians held the right wing, and the Greeks who were with the Persians the left. The leaders of the Ionians sent a Samian man to the Greeks to make plain about what had been decided by the king and about the whole disposition, and that in the battle they would desert from the barbarians.

17.4. When the Samian had secretly swum across and made these things plain to Eurybiades and his men, Themistocles, since the stratagem had succeeded according to his mind, was overjoyed and exhorted the multitudes to the danger; and the Greeks, taking courage at the promise of the Ionians, and the situation forcing them to fight at sea contrary to their own purpose, readily came down from Salamis into the sea-battle.

18.1. At last, when Eurybiades and Themistocles had drawn up the forces, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians held the left part, to be arrayed against the naval force of the Phoenicians; for the Phoenicians had a great superiority both because of their number and because of their ancestral experience in naval works.

18.2. The Aeginetans and Megarians filled the right wing; for these were reputed to be the most skilled in seamanship after the Athenians, and to be most ambitious because they alone of the Greeks had no refuge if any disaster should occur in the sea-battle; and the rest of the multitude of the Greeks held the center. These, then, marshaled in this way, sailed out and held the strait between Salamis and the Heracleium.

18.3. The king ordered the admiral to sail against the enemy, while he himself went to the place opposite Salamis, from which he could observe the sea-battle as it took place.

18.4. The Persians at first, as they sailed, kept their order, having much open space; but when they came into the narrows, they were forced to draw some of the ships out of the line, and caused much confusion.

18.5. The admiral, leading the line and being first to join battle, was destroyed after fighting brilliantly. When his ship was sunk, confusion seized the fleet of the barbarians; for there were many giving orders, but each commanded different things. Therefore they checked their sailing forward, and, backing water, retreated to the open space.

18.6. The Athenians, observing the confusion of the barbarians, sailed against the enemy, and some they struck with their rams, and of others they sheared off the oars; and, as the rowing did not serve them, many of the Persians' triremes, turning broadside, were repeatedly riddled by the rammings. Therefore they ceased to back water with their sterns, and, sailing backward, fled headlong.

19.1. As the Phoenician and Cyprian ships were being overcome by the Athenians, the ships of the Cilicians and Pamphylians, and further the Lycians, who were next to these, at first resisted stoutly; but when they saw the strongest ships set in flight, they too abandoned the danger.

19.2. On the other wing, as a fierce sea-battle took place, for a while the danger was evenly balanced; but when the Athenians, having pursued the Phoenicians and Cyprians to the land, turned back, the barbarians, forced by them, were routed and lost many ships.

19.3. In this way, then, the Greeks, having gained the advantage, conquered the barbarians in a most brilliant sea-battle. In the engagement there were destroyed forty ships of the Greeks, but of the Persians more than two hundred, apart from those captured together with their men.

19.4. The king, defeated beyond his expectation, slew the most blameworthy of the Phoenicians who had begun the flight, and threatened to inflict the fitting punishment on the rest. The Phoenicians, fearing the threats, at first put in at Attica, but, as night came on, departed for Asia.

19.5. Themistocles, who was reputed to have been the cause of the victory, devised another stratagem no less than this. For, as the Greeks feared to fight on land against so many myriads, he greatly humbled the forces of the land-armies in some such way as the following. He sent the tutor of his own sons to Xerxes to make plain that the Greeks were about to sail to the bridge and to break the crossing.

19.6. Therefore the king, trusting the words because of their plausibility, became very fearful lest he be deprived of his return to Asia, the Greeks holding command of the sea; and he resolved to cross as quickly as possible from Europe to Asia, leaving Mardonius in Greece with the best of the cavalry and infantry, whose total number was not less than four hundred thousand. Themistocles, then, by using two stratagems, became the cause of great advantages to the Greeks. And the affairs in Greece were in this state.

20.1. Having gone through sufficiently what was done in Europe, we shall transfer the narrative to the events of another kind. The Carthaginians, having agreed with the Persians at the same time to subdue the Greeks of Sicily, made great preparations of the things useful for the war. When everything was ready for them, they chose as general Hamilcar, preferring the man most admired among them.

20.2. He, taking great land and naval forces, sailed out from Carthage, having a land force not less than three hundred thousand, and warships more than two hundred, and besides many cargo-ships carrying the provisions, more than three thousand. He, after crossing the Libyan sea and being caught in a storm, lost those of his vessels that were carrying the cavalry and the chariots. Having put in at the harbor at Panormus in Sicily, he said that he had brought the war to its end; for he had feared that the sea might rescue the Sicilians from the dangers.

20.3. For three days he refreshed his soldiers and repaired the damage that had occurred in the storm; then he advanced with his force against Himera, the fleet sailing alongside. When he came near the aforesaid city, he made two camps, the one for the land army, the other for the naval force. He drew up on land all the warships and enclosed them with a deep trench and a wooden wall, and he fortified the camp of the infantry, making it face the city and extending it from the naval rampart as far as the overlooking hills.

20.4. In general, having occupied the whole western part, he took out all the provisions from the cargo-ships and quickly sent off all the vessels, ordering them to bring grain and other provisions from Libya and Sardinia.

20.5. He himself, taking the best of the soldiers, came against the city, and, having routed the Himeraeans who sallied out and slain many, dismayed those in the city. Therefore Theron the ruler of the Acragantines, having a sufficient force and guarding Himera, took fright and at once sent to Syracuse, asking Gelon to come to his aid as quickly as possible.

21.1. Gelon, who had himself prepared his force, learning of the despondency of the Himeraeans, broke camp from Syracuse in haste, having foot-soldiers not less than fifty thousand and cavalry more than five thousand. Quickly completing the journey and drawing near the city of the Himeraeans, he made those who had previously been dismayed by the forces of the Carthaginians take courage.

21.2. For he himself, having pitched his own camp in the places about the city, fortified this with a deep trench and surrounded it with a palisade, and sent out all his cavalry against those of the enemy who were wandering about the country and busy about the plunder. These men, appearing unexpectedly to those scattered in disorder throughout the country, brought in as many captives as each was able to lead. When more than ten thousand captives had been brought into the city, Gelon met with great acceptance, and those at Himera came to despise the enemy.

21.3. Acting consistently with this, Gelon walled up all the gates which those about Theron had previously walled up out of fear, doing the opposite out of contempt, and he constructed others besides, through which one could be of use for pressing needs. And in general Gelon, excelling in generalship and intelligence, at once sought a way by which, having outgeneralled the barbarians, he might without danger utterly destroy their force. And chance contributed greatly to his design, the following situation having arisen.

21.4. When he had resolved to burn the enemy's ships, and Hamilcar was tarrying in the naval camp and preparing to sacrifice to Poseidon magnificently, there came from the country horsemen leading to Gelon a letter-carrier bringing letters from the Selinuntians, in which it was written that, against the day on which Hamilcar wrote them to send the cavalry, they would send them on that very day.

21.5. As this was the day on which Hamilcar was about to complete the sacrifice, on that day Gelon sent out his own cavalry, who had been ordered to go around the neighboring places and to ride up at daybreak to the naval camp, as being allies of the Selinuntians, and, once they were inside the wooden wall, to kill Hamilcar and to burn the ships. He also sent scouts to the overlooking hills, ordering them, whenever they saw the cavalry get inside the wall, to raise the signal. And he himself, having marshaled his force at daybreak, awaited the signal that would come from the scouts.

22.1. The cavalry, at the rising of the sun, rode up to the naval camp of the Carthaginians, and, being received by the guards as allies, at once ran to Hamilcar, who was engaged in the sacrifice, and slew him and burned the ships. Then, when the scouts raised the signal, Gelon advanced with his whole force in order against the camp of the Carthaginians.

22.2. The commanders of the Phoenicians in the camp at first led out their force and met the Sicilians, and, joining battle, fought stoutly; and at the same time the trumpets in both camps sounded the call to battle, and a shout arose from the forces in turn, both sides being ambitious to surpass their opponents by the loudness of their cry.

22.3. As there was much slaughter, and the battle swayed this way and that, suddenly, when the flame from the ships was raised aloft and some reported the slaying of the general, the Greeks took courage, and, exalted in spirit by their cries and by their hopes of victory, pressed upon the barbarians more boldly, while the Carthaginians, dismayed and despairing of victory, turned to flight.

22.4. As Gelon had given orders to take no one alive, there was much slaughter of the fugitives, and in the end not less than one hundred and fifty thousand of them were cut down. The rest, having fled to a certain strong place, at first defended themselves against those forcing them; but, having occupied a waterless place and being oppressed by thirst, they were compelled to surrender themselves to the victors.

22.5. Gelon, having conquered in a most brilliant battle, and having achieved this chiefly through his own generalship, won a far-famed glory not only among the Sicilians, but also among all the rest;

22.6. for no one before him is remembered as having used such a stratagem, nor as having cut down more of the barbarians in a single engagement, nor as having taken so great a multitude of captives.

23.1. Therefore many of the historians compare this battle to the one that took place at Plataea between the Greeks and the Persians, and the stratagem of Gelon to the devices of Themistocles; and, because of the surpassing valor of both, some assign the first place to these, others to the others.

23.2. For when both the people of Greece and those of Sicily had been dismayed before the battle by the multitude of the barbarian forces, those in Sicily, conquering first, made those in Greece take courage when they learned of Gelon's victory; and of those who had held the whole leadership on either side, it came about that among the Persians the king and many myriads with him escaped, but among the Carthaginians not only did the general perish, but those who shared in the war were cut down, and, as the saying goes, not even a messenger was saved to Carthage.

23.3. In addition to this, of the most distinguished of the commanders, among the Greeks Pausanias and Themistocles—the one was put to death by his own citizens for greed and treason, the other was driven out of all Greece and took refuge with his bitterest enemy Xerxes and lived with him until his death—but Gelon, after the battle, ever the more meeting with acceptance among the Syracusans, grew old in his kingship and died admired; and so great was the goodwill toward him among the citizens that the rule was preserved for three of his house. But of these men, those who have a just reputation have their fitting praises also from us; and we shall pass on to what follows upon what has been said.

24.1. For it came to pass that on the same day Gelon conquered and Leonidas and his men at Thermopylae fought it out against Xerxes, as though the divine power had on purpose brought about that at about the same time there should occur both the fairest victory and the most glorious defeat.

24.2. After the battle at the city of the Himeraeans, twenty warships escaped the danger, which Hamilcar had not drawn up on land because of pressing needs. Therefore, since nearly all the men had either been slain or taken alive, these were the first to make their departure. Taking aboard many of the fugitives, and for this reason becoming overloaded, they fell into a storm and were all destroyed; only a few, saved in a small vessel, came to Carthage and made plain to the citizens, declaring in brief, that all who had crossed over to Sicily had perished.

24.3. The Carthaginians, having fallen unexpectedly into a great calamity, were so dismayed that all kept watch by night, guarding the city, as though Gelon had resolved at once to sail against Carthage with his whole force.

24.4. Because of the multitude of those who had perished, the city mourned in common, and privately the houses of individuals were filled with weeping and grief; for some sought their sons, others their brothers, and very many children, having become orphans bereft of their fathers, lamented in their desolation both the death of those who had begotten them and their own bereavement of helpers. The Carthaginians, fearing lest Gelon should anticipate them by crossing over to Libya, at once sent to him plenipotentiary ambassadors, the most able to speak and to deliberate.

25.1. Gelon, after the victory, honored with gifts the cavalry who had slain Hamilcar, and adorned with prizes of valor those of the others who had behaved bravely. Of the spoils he set aside the fairest, wishing to adorn the temples in Syracuse with the spoils; of the rest, many he nailed up at Himera in the most distinguished of the sanctuaries, and the remainder, together with the captives, he distributed to the allies, making the apportionment according to the number of those who had campaigned together.

25.2. The cities put in fetters the captives allotted to them, and through these repaired their public works. The Acragantines, having received the most, adorned both their city and their land; for so great was the multitude of the captured among them that many of the private citizens among them had five hundred prisoners. There contributed to the multitude of captives among them not only that they had sent many soldiers to the battle, but also that, when the rout took place, many of the fugitives withdrew into the interior, and especially into the territory of the Acragantines; and, all of these being taken alive by the Acragantines, the city was full of the captured.

25.3. As very many were brought into the public service, these quarried the stones from which not only the greatest temples of the gods were built, but also underground conduits were constructed for the outflows of the waters from the city, of such magnitude that the work is worth seeing, though it is despised because of its cheapness. The overseer of these works, the man called Phaeax, because of the fame of the construction caused the conduits to be called after himself "phaeaces."

25.4. The Acragantines also constructed a costly swimming-pool, having a circumference of seven stadia and a depth of twenty cubits. Into this, river and spring waters being conducted, it became a fish-pond, furnishing many fish for food and enjoyment; and, very many swans flying down into it, it came to pass that the sight of it was delightful. But this, in later times neglected, was silted up and, because of the length of time, was destroyed.

25.5. The whole country, being good, they made vine-bearing and densely planted with all kinds of trees, so that they received great revenues from it. Gelon, having dismissed the allies, led the citizens back to Syracuse, and, because of the magnitude of his success, met with acceptance not only among the citizens, but also throughout all Sicily; for he brought back so great a multitude of captives that it seemed that all Libya had been made captive by the island.

26.1. At once there came to him ambassadors from the cities and rulers who had formerly been opposed, asking pardon for their errors and undertaking for the future to do all that was commanded. He, treating all reasonably, made an alliance, and bore his good fortune in a human way not only toward these, but also toward the Carthaginians, his bitterest enemies.

26.2. For when the ambassadors who had been sent came to him from Carthage and begged him with tears to treat them in a human way, he granted them peace, but exacted from them the expenses incurred for the war, two thousand talents of silver, and ordered them to build two temples, in which the treaties were to be set up.

26.3. The Carthaginians, having unexpectedly obtained safety, agreed to give these things, and undertook besides to give a golden crown to Damarete, the wife of Gelon. For she, having been entreated by them, had cooperated most in the making of the peace; and, being crowned by them with a hundred talents of gold, she struck a coin which was called after her the Damaretium; this had the value of ten Attic drachmas, and was called by the Sicilians, from its weight, the fifty-litra piece.

26.4. Gelon treated all reasonably, chiefly in accordance with his own character, but not least also because he was eager to have all men his own in their goodwill; for he was preparing to sail with a great force to Greece and to fight as an ally of the Greeks against the Persians.

26.5. And when he was already about to put to sea, certain men sailed in from Corinth, making it plain that the Greeks had conquered in the sea-battle off Salamis, and that Xerxes with part of his force had departed from Europe. Therefore, checking his impulse and welcoming the eagerness of his soldiers, he gathered an assembly, ordering all to come together under arms; but he himself came to the assembly not only bare of arms, but also without a tunic, in a cloak, and rendered an account of his whole life and of what he had done to the Syracusans;

26.6. and as the crowds applauded at each thing he said, and marveled most that he had given himself up unarmed to those who wished to slay him, he was so far from meeting with punishment as a tyrant that with one voice all called him benefactor and savior and king.

26.7. After this Gelon built from the spoils notable temples of Demeter and Kore, and, making a golden tripod from sixteen talents, dedicated it as a thank-offering to Apollo in the precinct at Delphi. He undertook afterward also to build a temple of Demeter at Aetna, since there was no temple there; but this he did not complete, his life being cut short by fate.

26.8. Of the lyric poets, Pindar was flourishing in these times. These, then, are pretty nearly the most noteworthy of the things done in this year.

27.1. When Xanthippus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Quintus Fabius Silvanus and Servius Cornelius Tricostus. In their time the fleet of the Persians, except for the Phoenicians, after the defeat at the sea-battle off Salamis, was tarrying about Cyme. There, having wintered, when the summer set in, it sailed along to Samos to guard Ionia; and the ships in all at Samos were more than four hundred. These, then, kept watch over the cities, the Ionians being of a hostile mind.

27.2. In Greece, after the sea-battle off Salamis, the Athenians, being reputed to have been the cause of the victory and on this account elated in spirit, became evident to all as men who would dispute with the Lacedaemonians for the leadership at sea. Therefore the Lacedaemonians, foreseeing the future, were ambitious to humble the spirit of the Athenians. And so, when a judgement was proposed concerning the prizes of valor, prevailing by favor, they brought it about that the city of the Aeginetans was judged to have proved bravest, and the man Ameinias the Athenian, the brother of Aeschylus the poet; for he, commanding a trireme, was first to ram the flagship of the Persians, and sank it and destroyed the admiral.

27.3. As the Athenians bore the unjust defeat with displeasure, the Lacedaemonians, fearing lest Themistocles, vexed at what had happened, might devise some great evil against them and the Greeks, honored him with gifts twice as great as those who had received the prizes of valor. When Themistocles had received the gifts, the people of the Athenians removed him from the generalship and gave the office to Xanthippus the son of Ariphron.

28.1. As the estrangement of the Athenians from the Greeks became noised abroad, there came to Athens ambassadors from the Persians and from the Greeks. Those sent by the Persians said that the general Mardonius promised the Athenians, if they would choose the cause of the Persians, to give them whatever land of Greece they wished, and to rebuild their walls and temples, and to leave the city autonomous; but those sent by the Lacedaemonians asked them not to be persuaded by the barbarians, but to keep their goodwill toward the Greeks, who were both their kinsmen and of the same speech.

28.2. The Athenians replied to the barbarians that the Persians had no land so great, nor so much gold, that the Athenians, in receiving it, would abandon the Greeks; and they said to the Lacedaemonians that, as they had formerly taken thought for Greece, so afterward too they would try to preserve the same; but they asked them to come as quickly as possible into Attica with all the allies; for it was plain that Mardonius, since the Athenians had opposed him, would come with his force against Athens. And so it came to pass.

28.3. For Mardonius, tarrying in Boeotia with his forces, at first tried to make some of the cities in the Peloponnese revolt, sending money to those who stood at the head of the cities; but after this, learning of the answer of the Athenians and being provoked, he led his whole force against Attica;

28.4. for, apart from the army given by Xerxes, Mardonius himself had gathered many others from Thrace and Macedonia and the other allied cities, more than two hundred thousand.

28.5. As so great a force was advancing into Attica, the Athenians sent letter-carriers to the Lacedaemonians, begging them to come to their aid; but, as they delayed and the barbarians had invaded Attica, they were dismayed, and again, taking up their children and wives and as many of their other goods as it was possible to carry off quickly, they abandoned their native land and fled together once more to Salamis.

28.6. Mardonius, being bitterly disposed toward them, destroyed the whole country and razed the city and utterly ruined the temples that had been left.

29.1. When Mardonius had returned to Thebes with his force, it seemed best to the councilors of the Greeks to take the Athenians with them and, advancing in full force to Plataea, to fight it out for their freedom, and also to make a vow to the gods that, if they conquered, the Greeks should on that day keep a common festival of freedom and should celebrate the festival of liberation at Plataea.

29.2. When the Greeks had assembled at the Isthmus, it seemed best to all to swear an oath concerning the war, one that should make firm their concord and should compel them nobly to endure the dangers.

29.3. The oath was as follows: "I will not hold life dearer than freedom, nor will I abandon my leaders, whether living or dead, but I will bury all of the allies who die in the battle; and, having conquered the barbarians in the war, I will lay no one of the cities that fought waste, and of the temples that have been burned and thrown down I will rebuild none, but I will leave and bequeath them as a memorial to those who come after of the impiety of the barbarians."

29.4. Having sworn the oath, they marched into Boeotia through Cithaeron, and, coming to the foothills near Erythrae, they encamped there. Aristides led the Athenians, and Pausanias all together, being guardian of the son of Leonidas.

30.1. Mardonius, learning that the force of the enemy was advancing into Boeotia, came forth from Thebes; and, coming to the river Asopus, he pitched a camp, which he fortified with a deep trench and surrounded with a wooden wall. The whole number of the Greeks was about a hundred thousand, and of the barbarians about five hundred thousand.

30.2. The barbarians were first to begin the battle, pouring out upon them by night and driving up with all their cavalry against the camp. The Athenians, perceiving it beforehand and meeting them confidently with their army in order, it came to pass that a fierce battle took place.

30.3. At last all the rest of the Greeks routed those of the barbarians ranged against them, but the Megarians alone, standing against the cavalry-commander and the best of the Persian horsemen and being hard pressed in the battle, did not abandon their post, but, sending some of their number to the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, asked them quickly to come to their aid.

30.4. Aristides quickly sent off the chosen men of the Athenians who were about him, and these, forming up and falling upon the barbarians, rescued the Megarians from the dangers that pressed upon them, and, having slain the cavalry-commander himself and many others of the Persians, routed the rest. The Greeks, then, having brilliantly gained the advantage in what was, as it were, a preliminary contest, became of good hope concerning the complete victory; and after this they moved their camp from the foothills to another place more suitable for the complete victory.

30.5. For on the right there was a high ridge, and on the left the river Asopus; and the space between the camp occupied, being fenced by nature and by the security of the place.

30.6. To the Greeks, then, who had deliberated prudently, the narrowness of the place contributed much toward the victory; for it was not possible to extend the phalanx of the Persians to a great length, so that it came about that the many myriads of the barbarians were useless. Therefore Pausanias and Aristides, taking courage from the place, led their force forward into the battle, and, having marshaled themselves suitably to the situation, led on against the enemy.

31.1. Mardonius, being compelled to make his phalanx deep, drew up his force in whatever way seemed to him advantageous, and with a shout met the Greeks. Having about him the best men, he first charged into the Lacedaemonians ranged against him, and, fighting nobly, slew many of the Greeks; but, the Lacedaemonians ranging against him stoutly and readily enduring every danger, there was much slaughter of the barbarians.

31.2. As long, then, as it happened that Mardonius with the chosen men fought in the forefront of the danger, the barbarians stoutly endured the peril; but when Mardonius, fighting zealously, fell, and of the chosen men some died and others were wounded, they were overthrown in their spirits and rushed to flight.

31.3. As the Greeks pressed upon them, the greater part of the barbarians fled together into the wooden wall, while of the others, those of the Greeks who had been ranged with Mardonius withdrew to Thebes, and the rest, being more than forty thousand, Artabazus, a man praised among the Persians, took up and fled to the other part, and, making a swift withdrawal, advanced toward Phocis.

32.1. As the barbarians were thus divided in their flight, the multitude of the Greeks was likewise distributed; for the Athenians and Plataeans and Thespians pursued those who had set out toward Thebes, while the Corinthians and Sicyonians and Phliasians and certain others followed those fleeing with Artabazus, and the Lacedaemonians with the rest pursued those who had fled to the wooden wall and zealously sacked it.

32.2. The Thebans, receiving the fugitives and taking them up, fell upon the pursuing Athenians; and, a fierce battle taking place before the walls, and the Thebans fighting brilliantly, not a few fell on both sides, but in the end, being forced by the Athenians, they fled together again to Thebes.

32.3. After this the Athenians, withdrawing to the Lacedaemonians, joined with them in assaulting the wall against those who had fled to the camp of the Persians; and a great struggle taking place on both sides, the barbarians fighting well from well-fortified positions, and the Greeks bringing force against the wooden walls, many were wounded as they fought recklessly, and not a few, being destroyed by the multitude of missiles, stoutly endured death.

32.4. Yet neither the constructed wall nor the multitude of the barbarians could withstand the onset and force of the Greeks, but all that was ranged against them was compelled to give way; for the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, the leaders of Greece, vied with one another, elated by their previous victories and confident in their own valor.

32.5. At last, the barbarians being taken by storm, though they begged to be taken alive, they met with no mercy. For the general of the Greeks, Pausanias, seeing that the barbarians exceeded in number, was wary lest some unexpected thing should happen, the barbarians being many times more numerous; therefore, when he had given orders to take no one alive, there quickly came to be an incredible multitude of corpses. At last the Greeks, having cut down more than a hundred thousand of the barbarians, barely ceased from slaying the enemy.

33.1. The battle having taken such an end, the Greeks buried their fallen, who were more than ten thousand. Having divided the spoils according to the number of the soldiers, they made the judgement concerning the prizes of valor, and, at the bidding of Aristides, judged that the city of Sparta had proved bravest, and the man Pausanias the Lacedaemonian. Artabazus, having about forty thousand of the fleeing Persians, and going through Phocis into Macedonia, used the swiftest marches and was saved with his soldiers into Asia.

33.2. The Greeks, setting aside a tithe from the spoils, made a golden tripod and dedicated it at Delphi as a thank-offering to the god, inscribing this elegy: The saviors of spacious Greece dedicated this, having delivered their cities from hateful slavery. And they inscribed also, for the Lacedaemonians who died at Thermopylae, in common for all this: Here once against two hundred myriads fought four thousand from the Peloponnese. And privately for them this: Stranger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obedient to their commands.

33.3. Likewise the people of the Athenians too adorned the tombs of those who had died in the Persian War, and then for the first time held the funeral games, and made it a law that chosen men of the orators should speak encomia over those who were publicly buried.

33.4. After this Pausanias the general, taking up his force, marched against Thebes and demanded those responsible for the alliance with the Persians for punishment. The Thebans, dismayed both at the multitude of the enemy and at their valor, the most blameworthy authors of the revolt from the Greeks voluntarily submitted to surrender and were punished by Pausanias, and all were put to death.

34.1. There took place in Ionia also a great battle between the Greeks and the Persians, on the same day as the one accomplished at Plataea; and, being about to write of it, we will take up the narrative from the beginning.

34.2. Leotychides the Lacedaemonian and Xanthippus the Athenian, commanding the naval force, and having gathered the fleet from the sea-battle off Salamis to Aegina, after tarrying there some days, sailed to Delos, having two hundred and fifty triremes. While they were lying at anchor there, ambassadors came from Samos, asking them to liberate the Greeks in Asia.

34.3. Leotychides and his men, taking counsel with the commanders and hearing out the Samians, resolved to liberate the cities, and quickly sailed out from Delos. The admirals of the Persians, who were tarrying in Samos, learning of the Greeks' approach, put out from Samos with all their ships, and, putting in at Mycale in Ionia, drew up their ships on land, seeing that they were not adequate to fight at sea, and surrounded them with a wooden wall and a deep trench. None the less they also summoned land forces from Sardis and the neighboring cities, and gathered them all to the number of a hundred thousand; and they made preparations also of all the other things useful for war, thinking that the Ionians too would revolt to the enemy.

34.4. Leotychides and his men, having sailed up with the whole fleet in array against the barbarians at Mycale, sent ahead a ship having a herald with the loudest voice of those in the camp. He had been ordered to sail up to the enemy and to proclaim with a loud voice that the Greeks, having conquered the Persians, were now present to liberate the Greek cities in Asia.

34.5. This Leotychides and his men did, thinking that the Greeks who were campaigning with the barbarians would revolt from the Persians and that there would be much confusion in the camp of the barbarians; which indeed came to pass. For when the herald had sailed up to the ships drawn up on land and had proclaimed what he was ordered, it came to pass that the Persians distrusted the Greeks, and the Greeks made agreements with one another concerning a revolt.

35.1. The Greeks, having reconnoitered their situation, disembarked their force. On the next day, as they were preparing for the line of battle, a report fell upon them that the Greeks had conquered the Persians at Plataea.

35.2. Therefore Leotychides and his men, gathering an assembly, exhorted the multitude to the battle, putting forward other things and dramatizing the victory at Plataea, by which they supposed they would make those who were about to fight more bold. And the result was marvelous; for on the same day the lines of battle appeared to have taken place—the one accomplished at Mycale and the one that occurred at Plataea.

35.3. Therefore Leotychides and his men, who had not yet learned of the victory but were themselves inventing the success, seemed to have done this for the sake of a stratagem; for the magnitude of the distance proved that the report could not be true.

35.4. The commanders of the Persians, distrusting the Greeks, disarmed them and gave their arms to their own friends; and, having exhorted the multitudes and said that Xerxes himself with a great force would come to their aid, they made all confident in the face of the danger.

36.1. When both sides had drawn up their armies and were advancing against one another, the Persians, seeing that the enemy were few, despised them and bore down upon them with much shouting;

36.2. but, the Samians and Milesians having chosen in full force to come to the aid of the Greeks and advancing together in haste, as they came forward into the sight of the Greeks, the Ionians thought that the Greeks would become more confident, but the opposite turned out.

36.3. For Leotychides and his men, thinking that Xerxes was coming from Sardis with his force, took fright, and, confusion arising in the camp, they were at variance with one another; for some said that it was necessary to depart as quickly as possible to the ships, while others said to remain and draw up confidently. While they were still in confusion, the Persians appeared, drawn up in a way to strike terror, and bearing down upon them with a shout.

36.4. The Greeks, having no respite to deliberate, were forced to withstand the onset of the barbarians. And at first, both sides fighting stoutly, the battle was evenly balanced, and many fell on both sides; but when the Samians and the Milesians appeared, the Greeks were strengthened, and the barbarians, dismayed, rushed to flight.

36.5. As there was much slaughter, Leotychides and Xanthippus, pressing upon the defeated, pursued the barbarians as far as the camp; and there took part in the battle, which had already been decided, the Aeolians and many others of those in Asia; for a fierce longing for freedom fell upon the cities in Asia.

36.6. Therefore nearly all of them took no thought either of hostages or of oaths, but together with the other Greeks slew the barbarians in their flight. The Persians being defeated in this way, more than forty thousand of them were slain; and of those who survived, some escaped into the camp, others withdrew to Sardis.

36.7. Xerxes, learning both of the defeat at Plataea and of the rout of his men at Mycale, left part of his force at Sardis, in order to carry on the war against the Greeks, while he himself, in confusion, advanced with the rest of his army, making his journey toward Ecbatana.

37.1. Leotychides and Xanthippus, having sailed off to Samos, made the Ionians and Aeolians allies, and after this tried to persuade them to abandon Asia and migrate to Europe. They undertook to drive out the peoples that had medized and to give their land to them;

37.2. for, in general, if they remained in Asia, they would have the enemy as neighbors, far superior in forces, while their allies, being across the sea, would not be able to render them timely aid. The Aeolians and Ionians, hearing the promises, resolved to obey the Greeks, and prepared to sail with them to Europe.

37.3. But the Athenians changed their minds and again advised them to remain, saying that even if no one else of the Greeks should help them, the Athenians alone, being their kinsmen, would help them; for they supposed that if the Ionians were settled in common by the Greeks, they would no longer regard Athens as their mother-city. Therefore it came to pass that the Ionians changed their minds and resolved to remain in Asia.

37.4. These things being done, it came to pass that the force of the Greeks was divided, and that the Lacedaemonians sailed off to Laconia, while the Athenians with the Ionians and islanders set out for Sestus.

37.5. Xanthippus the general, immediately on arriving, making assaults on the city, took Sestus, and, establishing a garrison, dismissed the allies, while he himself with the citizens returned to Athens.

37.6. The war called the Median, then, having lasted two years, had this end. Of the historians, Herodotus, beginning before the Trojan times, has written pretty much the common deeds of the inhabited world in nine books, and brings his composition to a close at the battle of Mycale between the Greeks and the Persians and the siege of Sestus.

37.7. In Italy the Romans, having made war on the Volscians and conquered in battle, slew many. Spurius Cassius, who had been consul in the preceding year, being reputed to be aiming at a tyranny and condemned, was put to death. These things, then, were done in this year.

38.1. When Timosthenes was archon at Athens, at Rome Caeso Fabius and Lucius Aemilius Mamercus succeeded to the consular office. In their time, in Sicily a great peace held the island, the Carthaginians being utterly humbled, and Gelon presiding reasonably over the Sicilians and furnishing the cities with much good order and an abundance of all necessities.

38.2. When the Syracusans had abolished by law their costly funerals and removed the customary expenses incurred upon the dead, and had written into the law even the wholly simple burials, King Gelon, wishing to preserve the people's zeal in all things, kept firm in his own case the law concerning burial;

38.3. for, being held by illness and despairing of life, he handed over the kingship to Hieron, the eldest of his brothers, and concerning his own burial gave orders, charging that the law be strictly observed. Therefore, when he died, his successor to the kingship completed the funeral in accordance with his command.

38.4. His body was buried in the country-estate of his wife at the place called the Nine Towers, which were wonderful for the weight of their workmanship. The whole crowd from the city accompanied it, though the place was two hundred stadia distant.

38.5. There, after he had been buried, the people, setting up a notable tomb, honored Gelon with heroic honors. Later the Carthaginians, having campaigned against Syracuse, destroyed the monument, and Agathocles threw down the towers out of envy. Yet neither the Carthaginians through their enmity, nor Agathocles through his own baseness, nor anyone else, was able to take from Gelon his glory;

38.6. for the just testimony of history has preserved the report concerning him, proclaiming it clearly throughout all time. For it is at once just and advantageous for the common life that, through history, the wicked among those who have held power should be reviled, and the beneficent should meet with immortal remembrance; for thus most of all will it come about that many of later generations are urged toward the common benefit.

38.7. Gelon, then, reigned for seven years; and Hieron his brother, succeeding to the rule, reigned over the Syracusans eleven years and eight months.

39.1. In Greece, the Athenians after the victory at Plataea brought back their children and wives from Troezen and Salamis to Athens, and at once undertook to wall the city and made provision for the other things that pertain to security.

39.2. The Lacedaemonians, seeing that the Athenians had acquired great glory in naval forces, were suspicious of their growth, and resolved to prevent the Athenians from rebuilding their walls.

39.3. At once, then, they sent ambassadors to Athens, ostensibly to advise them not for the present to wall the city, because it was not advantageous in common to the Greeks; for if Xerxes should come again with greater forces, he would have ready walled cities outside the Peloponnese, setting out from which he would easily subdue the Greeks. When they were not persuaded, the ambassadors, coming to those who were building, ordered them to desist from the works as quickly as possible.

39.4. As the Athenians were at a loss what to do, Themistocles, who then met with the greatest acceptance among them, advised them to keep quiet; for if they used force, the Lacedaemonians with the Peloponnesians would easily make an expedition and prevent them from walling the city.

39.5. And in secret he told the council that he himself with certain others would go as ambassador to Lacedaemon to instruct the Lacedaemonians concerning the walling; and he ordered the magistrates, whenever ambassadors should come from Lacedaemon to Athens, to hold them back until he himself should return from Lacedaemon, and in the meantime to wall the city in full force; and in this way, he declared, they would master their purpose.

40.1. The Athenians having obeyed, Themistocles and his fellow-ambassadors set out for Sparta, while the Athenians with great zeal built the walls, sparing neither house nor tomb. There took part in the works both children and women and, in general, every foreigner and slave, no one falling short in zeal.

40.2. As the works were unexpectedly accomplished, both because of the multitude of hands and the zeal of all, Themistocles, being summoned by the magistrates and reproached concerning the wall-building, denied the construction, and exhorted the magistrates not to trust empty rumors, but to send trustworthy ambassadors to Athens; for through these they would learn the truth; and of this he offered himself as surety, and those who were ambassadors with him.

40.3. The Lacedaemonians, persuaded, kept Themistocles and his men under guard, and sent to Athens the most distinguished men to find out the things about which it was necessary to make inquiry. But as the time went on, the Athenians completed the wall to a sufficient height, and, when the ambassadors of the Lacedaemonians came to Athens and with vehemence and threats rebuked them, they put them into custody, saying that they would release them then, whenever those people too should release the ambassadors with Themistocles.

40.4. Outgeneralled in this way, the Laconians were compelled to release the ambassadors of the Athenians, in order to recover their own. And Themistocles, having by such a stratagem walled his native land quickly and without danger, met with great acceptance among the citizens.

40.5. While these things were being done, war arose for the Romans against the Aequi and the inhabitants of Tusculum; and, joining battle with the Aequi, they conquered and slew many of the enemy, and after this they took Tusculum by siege and subdued the city of the Aequi.

41.1. When the annual period had passed, at Athens Adeimantus was archon, and at Rome were appointed consuls Marcus Fabius Vibulanus and Lucius Valerius Publius. In their time Themistocles, because of his generalship and quickness of wit, met with acceptance not only among the citizens, but also among all the Greeks.

41.2. Therefore, elated by his glory, he employed other and far greater designs for increasing the leadership that pertained to his native land. For, since what is called the Piraeus was not a harbor in those times, but the Athenians used as their dockyard the place called Phaleron, which was altogether small, he conceived the idea of constructing the Piraeus as a harbor, which needed only a small construction, but was able to become the fairest and greatest harbor in Greece.

41.3. He hoped, then, that if this were added to the Athenians, the city would be able to lay claim to the leadership at sea; for they then possessed the most triremes, and, because of the continuity of the sea-battles, had acquired experience and great fame in naval contests.

41.4. In addition to this he supposed that he would have the Ionians as his own because of kinship, and that he would liberate the other Greeks in Asia through them, and that they would incline in their goodwill toward the Athenians because of the benefaction; and that the islanders, all dismayed at the magnitude of the naval force, would readily range themselves with those able to do both the greatest harm and the greatest good.

41.5. For he saw that the Lacedaemonians were well equipped as regards their land forces, but were most inept for the contests in ships.

42.1. Having reasoned thus, he resolved not to speak openly of his design, knowing accurately that the Lacedaemonians would hinder it; but in the assembly he said to the citizens that he wished to become an adviser and proposer of great matters advantageous to the city, but that it was not advantageous to speak of these openly, and that it was fitting that they be accomplished through few men; therefore he asked the people to choose two men whom they especially trusted and to entrust the matter to them.

42.2. The multitude being persuaded, the people chose two men, Aristides and Xanthippus, preferring them not only for their virtue, but also seeing that they were rivals of Themistocles in glory and the first place, and on this account hostilely disposed toward him.

42.3. These men, hearing in private the design of Themistocles, made plain to the people that the things said by Themistocles were both great and advantageous to the city and possible.

42.4. The people, while admiring the man, at the same time being suspicious lest he might be undertaking, with such great designs, to establish some tyranny for himself, ordered him to declare openly what had been resolved. But he again said that it was not advantageous for the people that what he had conceived should be made plain openly.

42.5. The people marveling much the more at the cleverness and high-mindedness of the man, ordered him to tell the council in secret what had been resolved; and if it should judge that he was saying things possible and advantageous, then they would let him carry his design through to its end as he should advise.

42.6. Therefore the council, learning the matter in detail and judging that he was saying things advantageous to the city and possible, the people thenceforth, together with the council, conceding it, he received the authority to do whatever he wished. And each man departed from the assembly admiring the virtue of the man, but in suspense and eagerly awaiting the end of the design.

43.1. Themistocles, having received the authority to act and having every assistance ready for his undertakings, again conceived the idea of outgeneralling the Lacedaemonians; for he knew accurately that, just as in the case of the walling of the city the Lacedaemonians had hindered them, so in the same way in the case of the construction of the harbor they would undertake to thwart the designs of the Athenians.

43.2. It seemed best to him, then, to send ambassadors to the Lacedaemonians to instruct them that it was advantageous to the common affairs of Greece to have a worthy harbor for the expedition that would come from the Persians. And in this way, having made the Spartiates more dull toward hindering, he himself held to the works, and, all vying in zeal, it came about quickly and unexpectedly that the harbor was constructed.

43.3. He persuaded the people each year to construct, in addition to the existing ships, twenty triremes more, and to make the metics and the craftsmen exempt from taxes, in order that a great crowd might come down into the city from every side and that they might readily establish more crafts; for both these things he judged most useful for the constructions of the naval forces. The Athenians, then, were busy about these things.

44.1. The Lacedaemonians, having appointed as admiral Pausanias, who had been general at Plataea, ordered him to liberate the Greek cities that still remained garrisoned by barbarian guards.

44.2. He, taking fifty triremes from the Peloponnese and summoning thirty from the Athenians, of which Aristides was in command, first sailed to Cyprus and liberated those of the cities that still had Persian garrisons;

44.3. after this, sailing to the Hellespont, he subdued Byzantium, which was held by the Persians, and of the other barbarians, slaying some and casting out others, he liberated the city; and, having taken alive many notable men of the Persians in it, he handed them over to be guarded by Gongylus the Eretrian, ostensibly to be kept for punishment, but in fact to be brought safely to Xerxes; for he had secretly made a compact of friendship with the king, and was going to marry the daughter of Xerxes, in order to betray the Greeks.

44.4. The man who was managing these things was the general Artabazus, and he was secretly supplying Pausanias with a quantity of money in order through this to corrupt those of the Greeks who were suited to it. But Pausanias became detected and met with punishment in some such way as this.

44.5. For, since he emulated Persian luxury and behaved tyrannically toward his subjects, all bore it with difficulty, and especially those of the Greeks who had been appointed to some command.

44.6. Therefore, as those in the army associated with one another by nations and by cities and spoke ill of the harshness of Pausanias, certain of the Peloponnesians, abandoning him, sailed off to the Peloponnese, and, sending ambassadors, accused Pausanias; and Aristides the Athenian, using the opportunity prudently, in his common dealings won over the cities, and, drawing them to himself through his intercourse, made them his own for the Athenians. Still more did chance also cooperate with the Athenians, for the following reasons.

45.1. Pausanias had arranged that those who carried the letters from him to the king should not return nor become informers of the secrets; for which reason, as they were slain by those who received the letters, it came about that none of them was saved.

45.2. Reasoning this out, one of the letter-carriers opened the letters, and, having learned that the matter of the slaying of those who carried the letters was true, gave the letters to the ephors.

45.3. As these distrusted them, because the letters had been given to them already opened, and sought some other firmer proof, he undertook to hand him over confessing.

45.4. Going, then, to Taenarum and sitting down at the temple of Poseidon, he set up a double tent, and concealed the ephors and some others of the Spartiates; and, when Pausanias came to him and asked the reason for his supplication, he reproached him in that he had written into the letter his own death.

45.5. As Pausanias said that he repented and asked pardon for what had been done in ignorance, and further begged him to conceal it and promised great gifts, they parted; and the ephors and those with them, having accurately learned the truth, then kept quiet, but afterward, when the Lacedaemonians were arresting him through the ephors, he, perceiving it beforehand, anticipated them and fled for refuge into the temple of Athena of the Brazen House.

45.6. As the Lacedaemonians were at a loss whether to punish the suppliant, it is said that the mother of Pausanias, coming to the temple, neither said nor did anything else, but, taking up a brick, set it down at the entrance to the temple, and, having done this, returned to her own house.

45.7. The Lacedaemonians, following the mother's judgement, walled up the entrance, and in this way compelled Pausanias to end his life by starvation. The body of the dead man was indeed granted to his relatives to bury; but the divine power gave a sign that the protection of suppliants had been violated;

45.8. for, as the Lacedaemonians were consulting the oracle at Delphi about certain other matters, the god gave a response ordering them to restore the suppliant to the goddess.

45.9. Therefore the Spartiates, thinking the oracle impossible to fulfill, were at a loss for a sufficient time, being unable to do what was commanded by the god; nevertheless, deliberating from among the possibilities, they made two bronze images of Pausanias and dedicated them in the temple of Athena.

46.1. We, who throughout the whole history are accustomed to increase the glory of good men through the praises that are added, and to utter the fitting reproaches over the wicked at their deaths, will not leave the baseness and treason of Pausanias unaccused.

46.2. For who would not marvel at the folly of this man, who, having become a benefactor of Greece and having conquered in the battle at Plataea and accomplished many other praiseworthy deeds, so far from preserving his existing dignity, that, having grown fond of the wealth and luxury of the Persians, he disgraced all his former good repute?

46.3. For, elated by his successes, he came to loathe the Laconian discipline and imitated the wantonness and luxury of the Persians—he whom it least befitted to emulate the practices of the barbarians; for he knew, not having learned it from others, but having himself taken trial of it in deed, by how much the ancestral way of life surpassed the luxury of the Persians in respect to virtue.

46.4. But indeed he himself, because of his own baseness, not only met with the punishment he deserved, but also became to his fellow-citizens the cause of their losing the leadership at sea; for the generalship of Aristides, being viewed by the allies in comparison, and, because of his intercourse with his subjects and his other virtues, made all incline toward the Athenians as if by a single impulse.

46.5. Therefore they no longer paid heed to the commanders sent from Sparta, but, admiring Aristides and readily obeying all his commands, made them take over the rule at sea without danger.

47.1. At once, then, Aristides advised all the allies, who held a common assembly, to designate Delos as a common treasury, and to deposit all the money that was collected in it, and, against the war suspected to come from the Persians, to fix a tribute upon all the cities according to their ability, so that the whole sum amounted to five hundred and sixty talents.

47.2. Being appointed to the arrangement of the tributes, he made the apportionment so accurately and justly that all the cities were well content. Therefore, being reputed to have accomplished one of the impossible tasks, he acquired the greatest reputation for justice, and, because of the surpassing nature of his justice, he was named the Just.

47.3. At one and the same time, then, the baseness of Pausanias deprived his fellow-citizens of the leadership at sea, while the virtue of Aristides in every respect made the Athenians acquire a generalship they had not had. These things, then, were done in this year.

48.1. When Phaedon was archon at Athens, the seventy-sixth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Scamandrius of Mytilene won the stadium-race; and at Rome the consuls were Caeso Fabius and Spurius Furius Menellaeus.

48.2. In their time Leotychides the king of the Lacedaemonians died, having ruled twenty-two years, and Archidamus, succeeding to the rule, reigned forty-two years. There died also Anaxilas the tyrant of Rhegium and Zancle, having held power eighteen years; and Micythus succeeded to the tyranny, being entrusted with it so as to give it back to the children of the dead man, who were young in age.

48.3. Hieron, the king of the Syracusans, after the death of Gelon, seeing his brother Polyzelus in good repute among the Syracusans and thinking that he was a rival waiting in reserve for the kingship, was eager to put him out of the way; and he himself, hiring foreigners and preparing about himself a body of mercenaries, supposed that he would securely hold the kingship.

48.4. Therefore, when the Sybarites were being besieged by the Crotoniates and begged for aid, he enrolled many soldiers into an army, which he handed over to his brother Polyzelus, thinking that he would be destroyed by the Crotoniates.

48.5. As Polyzelus did not obey the order to undertake the expedition, because of the aforesaid suspicion, Hieron was angry with his brother; and, when he fled to Theron the tyrant of the Acragantines, he prepared to make war on Theron.

48.6. After this, since Thrasydaeus the son of Theron, who governed the city of the Himeraeans more harshly than was fitting, it came about that the Himeraeans were wholly estranged from him.

48.7. They disapproved of going to his father and accusing him, thinking that they would not have a fair hearer; but to Hieron they sent ambassadors accusing Thrasydaeus and undertaking both to hand over the city to him and to join in attacking Theron and his men.

48.8. Hieron, resolving to come to a peaceful settlement with Theron, betrayed the Himeraeans and secretly made known to him what had been resolved. Therefore Theron, examining the matter of the deliberation and finding the information true, settled with Hieron and restored Polyzelus to his former goodwill; and, having seized those of the Himeraeans who were his opponents, who were many, he slaughtered them.

49.1. Hieron, having removed the Naxians and the Catanaeans from their cities, sent his own settlers, gathering five thousand from the Peloponnese and adding as many others from Syracuse; and he renamed Catana Aetna, and apportioned by lot not only the Catanaean land, but also much of the bordering land which he added, settling ten thousand inhabitants.

49.2. This he did, being eager at once to have ready a notable aid for any future needs, and at the same time to receive heroic honors from the city of ten thousand men that had come into being. The Naxians and the Catanaeans, who had been removed from their native lands, he settled in Leontini, and ordered them to dwell in the city together with the natives.

49.3. Theron, after the slaughter of the Himeraeans, seeing the city in need of inhabitants, settled into it both the Dorians and any others who wished, and enrolled them as citizens.

49.4. These, then, dwelling together with one another, continued to be well governed for fifty-eight years; but then, the city being subdued by the Carthaginians and razed, it remained uninhabited until our own times.

50.1. When Dromoclides was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Marcus Fabius and Gnaeus Manlius. In their time the Lacedaemonians, having unreasonably lost the leadership of the sea, bore it with difficulty; therefore, being harshly disposed toward the Greeks who had revolted from them, they threatened to inflict upon them the fitting punishment.

50.2. The senate having been convened, they deliberated about the war against the Athenians for the leadership at sea.

50.3. Likewise, when the common assembly too had been convened, the younger men and most of the others were ambitious to recover the leadership, thinking that, if they should regain it, they would have an abundance of much money and would in general make Sparta greater and more powerful, and that the houses of private men would receive much increase toward prosperity.

50.4. They recalled also the ancient oracle, in which the god had ordered them to take care lest they have a lame leadership; and they said that the oracle meant nothing else than the present case; for their rule would be lame if, there being two leaderships, they should lose one of them.

50.5. As nearly all the citizens were set upon this proposal, and the senate was sitting in council about these things, no one expected that anyone would dare to counsel anything else.

50.6. But one of the senate, named Hetoemaridas, a man of the lineage of Heracles and meeting with acceptance among the citizens because of his virtue, undertook to advise leaving the Athenians in the leadership; for it was not advantageous to Sparta to dispute the sea; and, being well supplied with arguments fitting to so paradoxical a thesis, contrary to expectation he persuaded the senate and the people.

50.7. Finally the Lacedaemonians, judging that Hetoemaridas spoke advantageously, desisted from their impulse toward the war against the Athenians.

50.8. The Athenians at first expected that they would have a great war against the Lacedaemonians for the leadership at sea, and on this account were building more triremes and providing a quantity of money and behaving reasonably toward the allies; but when they learned what had been resolved by the Lacedaemonians, they were freed from their fear concerning the war, and were busy about the increase of their own city.

51.1. When Acestorides was archon at Athens, at Rome Caeso Fabius and Titus Verginius succeeded to the consular office. In their time Hieron the king of the Syracusans, when ambassadors came to him from Cyme in Italy and begged him to come to their aid as they were being warred upon by the Tyrrhenians, who held command of the sea, sent them as an alliance a sufficient number of triremes.

51.2. The commanders of these ships, when they had put in at Cyme, fought at sea together with the natives against the Tyrrhenians, and, destroying many of their ships and conquering in a great sea-battle, humbled the Tyrrhenians and freed the Cumaeans from their fears, and sailed off to Syracuse.

52.1. When Menon was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Gaius Cornelius Lentulus, and in Italy a war arose for the Tarentines against the Iapygians;

52.2. for, disputing with one another about a bordering territory, for some time they continued skirmishing and ravaging one another's land; but, as the difference ever increased and slaughters often occurred, finally they rushed into a complete contest of ambition.

52.3. The Iapygians, then, prepared their own force and took along the alliance of their neighbors, and gathered all together more than twenty thousand; but the Tarentines, learning the magnitude of the force gathered against them, both assembled their citizen soldiers and took on many of the Rhegians, who were their allies.

52.4. As a violent battle took place and many fell on both sides, finally the Iapygians conquered. As the defeated were divided into two parts in their flight, and some made their withdrawal to Tarentum while others fled to Rhegium, the Iapygians likewise divided.

52.5. Those, then, who pursued the Tarentines, the distance being short, slew many of their opponents; but those who pursued the Rhegians were so ambitious that they burst in together with the fugitives into Rhegium and gained control of the city.

53.1. After this at Athens Chares was archon, and at Rome the consuls established were Titus Minunius and Gaius Horatius Polyidos; and among the Eleans the seventy-seventh Olympiad was celebrated, in which Dandes the Argive won the stadium-race. In their time, in Sicily Theron the ruler of the Acragantines died, having ruled sixteen years, and Thrasydaeus his son succeeded to the rule.

53.2. Theron, then, having administered his rule reasonably, both while living met with great acceptance among the citizens and when dead met with heroic honors; but his son, even while his father was still living, was violent and bloodthirsty, and, when his father died, ruled his native land lawlessly and tyrannically.

53.3. Therefore, being quickly distrusted by his subjects, he continued to be plotted against and to have a hated life; whence quickly his manner of ending his life came to suit his own lawlessness. For after the death of his father Theron, gathering many mercenaries and enrolling besides some of the Acragantines and Himeraeans, he assembled in all more than twenty thousand cavalry and infantry.

53.4. As he was about to make war with these against the Syracusans, Hieron the king, having prepared a notable force, made an expedition against Acragas. A violent battle taking place, very many fell of the Greeks ranged against Greeks.

53.5. In the battle, then, the Syracusans gained the advantage; but there were cut down about two thousand of the Syracusans, and more than four thousand of the others. After this Thrasydaeus, being humbled, was driven out of the rule, and, fleeing to the Megarians called Nisaeans, there, being condemned to death, met his end; and the Acragantines, having recovered their democracy, by sending ambassadors to Hieron obtained peace.

53.6. In Italy, war having arisen for the Romans against the Veientines, a great battle took place about the place called the Cremera. As the Romans were defeated, it came about that many of them fell, among whom, as some of the historians say, were the three hundred Fabii, who, being kinsmen of one another and on this account included under one name. These things, then, were done in this year.

54.1. When Praxiergus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Aulus Verginius Tricostus and Gaius Servilius Structus. In their time the Eleans, who dwelt in many small cities, were united into one city called Elis.

54.2. The Lacedaemonians, seeing that Sparta was in low estate because of the treason of the general Pausanias, but that the Athenians were in good repute because no citizen among them had been convicted of treason, were eager to involve Athens in similar slanders.

54.3. Therefore, since Themistocles was in good repute among them and had a great reputation for virtue, they accused him of treason, alleging that he had become the greatest friend of Pausanias, and that together with him he had agreed in common to betray Greece to Xerxes.

54.4. They also conferred with the enemies of Themistocles, provoking them to the accusation, and gave money, teaching them that Pausanias, having resolved to betray the Greeks, had made plain his own design to Themistocles and invited him to share in the purpose, but that Themistocles had neither accepted the proposal nor judged that he ought to denounce a man who was a friend.

54.5. Nevertheless, though accused, Themistocles then escaped the trial for treason. Therefore at first, after his acquittal, he was great among the Athenians; for the citizens loved him exceedingly for what he had done; but after this some, fearing his superiority, and others, envying his glory, forgot his benefactions and were eager to humble his power and his spirit.

55.1. First, then, they removed him from the city, bringing against him what is called ostracism, which was established as law at Athens after the overthrow of the tyrants about Pisistratus; and the law was as follows.

55.2. Each of the citizens wrote on a potsherd the name of the man who seemed most able to overthrow the democracy; and the one against whom the more potsherds came was appointed to flee from his native land for five years.

55.3. The Athenians are thought to have made these laws not in order to punish wickedness, but in order that the spirits of those who excel might become more humble through exile. Themistocles, then, having been ostracized in the aforesaid manner, fled from his native land to Argos;

55.4. but the Lacedaemonians, learning of these things and thinking that they had received from fortune an opportunity to attack Themistocles, again sent ambassadors to Athens, accusing Themistocles of having shared in the treason of Pausanias, and saying that the judgement of crimes common to Greece ought to be made not privately among the Athenians, but in the common council of the Greeks, which was accustomed to sit in those times.

55.5. Themistocles, seeing that the Lacedaemonians were eager to slander and humble the city of the Athenians, and that the Athenians wished to defend themselves against the charge brought, supposed that he himself would be handed over to the common council.

55.6. This he knew made its judgements not justly, but to gratify the Lacedaemonians, judging from other things and from what they had done concerning the prizes of valor; for those who were masters of the vote were so enviously disposed toward the Athenians that, though they had furnished more triremes than all who fought the sea-battle together had furnished, they made them no better than the other Greeks.

55.7. For these reasons it came to pass that Themistocles distrusted the councilors. And indeed, from the defense previously made at Athens by Themistocles, the Lacedaemonians had grounds for the accusation made later.

55.8. For Themistocles in his defense admitted that Pausanias had sent him letters inviting him to share in the treason, and, using this as his greatest proof, established that Pausanias would not have invited him unless he had spoken against the proposal.

56.1. For these reasons, as we said before, he fled from Argos to Admetus the king of the Molossians; and, taking refuge at his hearth, he became a suppliant. The king at first received him kindly and exhorted him to take courage, and altogether undertook to take thought for his safety;

56.2. but when the Lacedaemonians sent the most distinguished of the Spartiates as ambassadors to Admetus and demanded him for punishment, calling him a traitor and a destroyer of all Greece, and, in addition, said that if he did not hand him over they would make war with all the Greeks, then the king, fearing the threats but pitying the suppliant and avoiding the shame of surrender, persuaded Themistocles to depart as quickly as possible secretly from the Lacedaemonians, and gave him a quantity of gold as provision for his flight.

56.3. Themistocles, driven from everywhere and having received the gold, fled by night from the country of the Molossians, the king cooperating with him in everything for his flight; and, having found two young men, Lyncestae by birth, engaged in mercantile occupations and on this account experienced in the roads, he fled with them.

56.4. Using night journeys, he escaped the notice of the Lacedaemonians, and, through the goodwill and toil of the young men, came into Asia; there, having a personal guest-friend, named Lysithides, admired for his reputation and wealth, he took refuge with him.

56.5. Lysithides happened to be a friend of King Xerxes, and during the crossing of Xerxes had entertained the whole force of the Persians. Therefore, having intimacy with the king but wishing to save Themistocles out of pity, he undertook to cooperate with him in everything.

56.6. As Themistocles asked him to lead him to Xerxes, at first he refused, declaring that he would be punished because of the deeds done by him against the Persians; but after this, learning what was advantageous, he obeyed, and unexpectedly and safely brought him through into Persia.

56.7. For, since it was a custom among the Persians that the man who brought a concubine to the king should carry her in a covered carriage, and that none of those they met should be inquisitive or come face to face with the woman who was being conveyed, Lysithides used this opportunity for his design.

56.8. For, having prepared the carriage adorned with costly hangings, he placed Themistocles in it, and, having brought him through with all safety, met with the king, and, conversing cautiously, received from him pledges that he would do the man no harm. And, having brought him in before the king, and the king having given Themistocles leave to speak and having learned that he had done him no wrong, he was released from punishment.

57.1. Having been unexpectedly saved by an enemy, he fell again into greater dangers for the following reasons. Mandane was the daughter of Darius, who had slain the Magi, and the full sister of Xerxes, and met with the greatest acceptance among the Persians.

57.2. She, having been deprived of her sons at the time when Themistocles defeated the fleet of the Persians at Salamis, bore the destruction of her children with difficulty, and, because of the magnitude of her misfortune, was pitied by the multitudes.

57.3. She, learning of the presence of Themistocles, went to the palace wearing mourning dress, and with tears begged her brother to inflict punishment on Themistocles. As he paid no heed to her, she went about to the best of the Persians making her request and, in general, provoking the multitudes to the punishment of Themistocles.

57.4. As the crowd ran together to the palace and with a shout demanded Themistocles for punishment, the king replied that he would establish a court from the best of the Persians, and that what was judged should meet with fulfillment.

57.5. All consenting, and a sufficient time being given for the preparation of the trial, Themistocles, having learned the Persian language and using it in his defense, was acquitted of the charges.

57.6. The king, being overjoyed at the man's deliverance, honored him with great gifts; for he joined to him in marriage a Persian woman, distinguished in nobility and beauty and, moreover, praised for her virtue, and a multitude of servants . . . for his attendance, and all sorts of cups and the other furnishing suited to enjoyment and luxury.

57.7. He gave him also three cities well suited for his maintenance and enjoyment: Magnesia on the Maeander, which had the most grain of the cities in Asia, for bread; Myus, for relish, having a sea rich in fish; and Lampsacus, which had much vine-bearing land, for wine.

58.1. Themistocles, then, having been freed from his fear among the Greeks, and, unexpectedly, having been driven into exile by those whom he had most greatly benefited, and benefited by those whom he had most grievously harmed, lived out his life in these cities, well supplied with all the goods that pertain to enjoyment; and, dying in Magnesia, he met with a notable burial and a monument that still remains to this day.

58.2. Some of the historians say that Xerxes, desiring to campaign again against Greece, invited Themistocles to be general in the war, and that he agreed, and took sworn pledges concerning these matters that Xerxes would not campaign against the Greeks without Themistocles.

58.3. A bull having been sacrificed and the oaths taken, Themistocles, having filled a cup with the blood, drank it down and at once died; and Xerxes desisted from this design, while Themistocles by his own death left behind the fairest defense, that he had nobly conducted his public life toward the Greeks.

58.4. We are come to the death of the greatest man among the Greeks, concerning whom many dispute whether he, having wronged his native land and the other Greeks, fled to the Persians, or, on the contrary, whether the city and all the Greeks, having been greatly benefited, forgot their gratitude and unjustly led their benefactor into the uttermost dangers.

58.5. But if anyone should examine, without envy and with accuracy, both the nature of the man and his deeds, he will find that of all whom we remember he held the first place in both the things that have been said. Therefore one might reasonably marvel that they were willing to deprive themselves of a man of such a nature.

59.1. For what other man, when Sparta was the more powerful and Eurybiades the Spartiate held the leadership of the fleet, would by his own deeds have taken from Sparta this glory? What other man have we recorded who by a single deed made himself excel the commanders, his city the Greek cities, and the Greeks the barbarians? Under what general did it come about that there were fewer resources or greater dangers?

59.2. Who, ranged against all the force from Asia with his city laid waste, conquered? Who in peace, by such works, made his native land powerful? Who, when a very great war held it, saved it, and, by a single device—that concerning the bridge—humbled the land force of the enemy by one-half, so that it became easy for the Greeks to overcome?

59.3. Therefore, whenever we contemplate the magnitude of his deeds, and, examining the particulars, find that he was dishonored by his city, while the city was exalted because of his deeds, we reasonably find that the city which seems to be of all cities the wisest and most reasonable was most harsh toward that man.

59.4. Concerning the virtue of Themistocles, then, even if we have dwelt at length in this digression, we judged it not right to leave his virtue unmarked. While these things were being done, in Italy Micythus, who held the dominion of Rhegium and Zancle, founded the city Pyxus.

60.1. When Demotion was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Publius Valerius Publicola and Gaius Nautius Rufus. In their time the Athenians, having chosen as general Cimon the son of Miltiades and given him a notable force, sent him to the coast of Asia to aid the allied cities and to liberate those still held by Persian garrisons.

60.2. He, taking over the fleet at Byzantium, and sailing to the city called Eion, this, which the Persians held, he subdued; and Scyros, which the Pelasgians and Dolopians inhabited, he took by siege, and, establishing an Athenian as founder, apportioned the land by lot.

60.3. After this, intending to begin greater enterprises, he sailed to the Piraeus, and, taking on more triremes and preparing the other supplies on a notable scale, then sailed out having two hundred triremes; and afterward, having sent for more from the Ionians and all the others, he had in all three hundred.

60.4. Sailing, then, with the whole fleet to Caria, those of the coastal cities that had been colonized from Greece he at once persuaded to revolt from the Persians, while those that were of two languages and had Persian garrisons he besieged, bringing force against them. And, having won over the cities in Caria, he likewise persuaded and took on those in Lycia.

60.5. And, taking on ships from the allies who were ever being added, he increased his fleet still more. The Persians prepared their land army by themselves, and gathered their navy from Phoenicia and Cyprus and Cilicia; and Tithraustes, a bastard son of Xerxes, was general of the Persian forces.

60.6. Cimon, learning that the fleet of the Persians was tarrying about Cyprus, and sailing against the barbarians, fought at sea with two hundred and fifty ships against three hundred and forty. A fierce struggle taking place and both fleets fighting brilliantly, in the end the Athenians conquered, and destroyed many of the enemy's ships and captured more than a hundred together with their men.

60.7. As the rest of the ships fled for refuge to Cyprus, the men in them withdrew to the land, and the ships, being empty of defenders, fell into the hands of the enemy.

61.1. After this Cimon, not content with so great a victory, at once put in with the whole fleet against the land camp of the Persians, the camp being beside the river Eurymedon. Wishing to outgeneral the barbarians, he embarked on the captured ships the best of his own men, giving them tiaras and putting about them the rest of the Persian equipment.

61.2. The barbarians, as the fleet was just sailing up, deceived by the Persian ships and equipment, supposed them to be their own triremes. Therefore these received the Athenians as being friends, while Cimon, when night had now come on, having disembarked his soldiers, and being received as a friend by them, fell upon the encampment of the barbarians.

61.3. As great confusion arose among the Persians, Cimon and his men slew all whom they met, and, having caught in his tent the other general of the barbarians, Pherendates, the nephew of the king, slew him; and of the rest, some they killed, others they wounded, and all, because of the unexpectedness of the attack, they forced to flee; and in general such consternation and ignorance held the Persians that the greater part did not know who those attacking them were.

61.4. For they did not suppose that the Greeks had come against them with a force, being persuaded that they had no land army at all; but the Pisidians, who were neighbors and hostilely disposed toward them, they supposed had come with a force. Therefore, thinking that the onset of the enemy was from the mainland, they fled to the ships as to friends.

61.5. As the night was moonless and dark, it came about that the ignorance was much increased and no one could see the truth.

61.6. Therefore, much slaughter taking place because of the disorder of the barbarians, Cimon, having told his soldiers beforehand to run together to the beacon that would be raised, raised the signal by the ships, being wary lest, the soldiers being scattered and rushing to plunder, something unexpected might happen.

61.7. When all had gathered to the beacon and ceased from plunder, then they withdrew to the ships, and on the next day, setting up a trophy, they sailed off to Cyprus, having won two fairest victories, the one by land, the other by sea; for never yet are such and so great deeds recorded as having taken place on the same day with both naval and land forces.

62.1. Cimon, having through his own generalship and valor achieved great things, won a far-famed glory not only among the citizens, but also among the other Greeks. For he had taken three hundred and forty ships, and more than twenty thousand men, and a notable quantity of money.

62.2. The Persians, having fallen into such great defeats, built still more triremes, fearing the growth of the Athenians. For from these times the city of the Athenians received much increase, being equipped with a quantity of money and having met with great glory in courage and generalship.

62.3. The people of the Athenians, setting aside a tithe from the spoils, dedicated it to the god, and inscribed this on the dedicated offering they had made: Since the sea divided Europe from Asia and impetuous Ares holds the cities of mortals, never yet did such a deed of earthly men take place at once on the mainland and on the sea. For these men, having destroyed many Medes in Cyprus, took at sea a hundred Phoenician ships full of men; and greatly groaned Asia, smitten by them with both hands in the might of war.

63.1. These things, then, were done in this year. When Phaion was archon at Athens, at Rome Lucius Furius Mediolanus and Marcus Manilius Vason succeeded to the consular office. In their time a great and unexpected calamity befell the Lacedaemonians; for, great earthquakes occurring in Sparta, it came about that the houses fell from their foundations and more than twenty thousand of the Lacedaemonians were destroyed.

63.2. As for a long time continuously the city was being shaken down and the houses were falling, many bodies, caught by the falling of the walls, were destroyed, and the earthquake ruined no small amount of the property in the houses.

63.3. And this misfortune they suffered as though some divine power had taken vengeance on them; but other dangers befell them at the hands of men for the following reasons.

63.4. The Helots and Messenians, being hostilely disposed toward the Lacedaemonians, previously kept quiet, fearing the superiority and power of Sparta; but when, because of the earthquake, they saw that the greater part of them had perished, they came to despise those who were left, being few. Therefore, having agreed with one another, they jointly waged the war against the Lacedaemonians.

63.5. The king of the Lacedaemonians, Archidamus, through his own forethought both saved the citizens during the earthquake and during the war nobly ranged himself against the assailants.

63.6. For, the city being held fast by the severity of the earthquake, he, first of the Spartiates, having snatched up his armor from the city, ran out into the country, and ordered the other citizens to do the same.

63.7. The Spartiates obeying, in this way those who survived were saved; whom King Archidamus, marshaling, prepared to make war on those who had revolted.

64.1. The Messenians, marshaled together with the Helots, at first set out against Sparta, supposing that they would take it because of the lack of defenders; but when they heard that those who had survived, marshaled with King Archidamus, were ready for the contest in defense of their native land, they desisted from this design, and, having seized a strong place in Messenia, made it their base and overran Laconia.

64.2. The Spartiates, having recourse to the aid from the Athenians, received from them a force; and none the less, gathering forces from the other allies too, they became a match for the enemy. And at first they greatly surpassed the enemy, but afterward, a suspicion arising that the Athenians were about to incline to the Messenians, they dismissed their alliance, saying that they had the other allies sufficient for the present danger.

64.3. The Athenians, thinking that they had been dishonored, then departed; but after this, being hostilely disposed toward the Lacedaemonians, they ever more kindled their hatred. Therefore they took this as the beginning of their estrangement; and afterward the cities fell out, and, having raised great wars, filled all Greece with great misfortunes. But concerning these things we shall record the particulars in their proper times.

64.4. At that time the Lacedaemonians, having campaigned against Ithome with their allies, besieged it. The Helots, having in full force revolted from the Lacedaemonians, fought as allies of the Messenians, and at times conquered, at times were defeated. And as for ten years the war could not be decided, during this time they continued to do one another harm.

65.1. After this, at Athens Theagenides was archon, and at Rome the consuls established were Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Lucius Julius Iulus, and the seventy-eighth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Parmenides of Posidonia won the stadium-race. In their time war arose for the Argives and the Mycenaeans for the following reasons.

65.2. The Mycenaeans, because of the ancient dignity of their native land, did not obey the Argives, as did the other cities in the Argolid, but, being ranged independently, paid no heed to the Argives. They disputed also about the temple of Hera, and claimed the right to administer the games of the Nemea themselves; and, in addition, when the Argives voted not to fight as allies at Thermopylae with the Lacedaemonians unless they were granted a share of the leadership, the Mycenaeans alone of those dwelling in the Argolid fought as allies of the Lacedaemonians.

65.3. In general the Argives suspected them, lest, having grown stronger, they might dispute the leadership with the Argives because of the ancient spirit of their city. For these reasons, then, being hostilely disposed, they had long been eager to do away with the city, and now they thought they had a suitable opportunity, seeing the Lacedaemonians humbled and unable to come to the aid of the Mycenaeans. Gathering, then, a notable force from Argos and the allied cities, they campaigned against them, and, having conquered the Mycenaeans in battle and shut them up within their walls, besieged the city.

65.4. The Mycenaeans for some time defended themselves vigorously against the besiegers; but afterward, being inferior in the war, and the Lacedaemonians being unable to come to their aid because of their own wars and the calamity that had befallen them from the earthquakes, and there being no other allies, in the absence of helpers they were taken by storm.

65.5. The Argives, having enslaved the Mycenaeans and consecrated a tithe of them to the god, razed Mycenae. This city, then, which had been prosperous in ancient times and had great men and had accomplished notable deeds, met with such a destruction, and remained uninhabited until our own times. These things, then, were done in this year.

66.1. When Lysistratus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Pinarius Mamertinus and Publius Furius Phipron. In their time Hieron the king of the Syracusans, having summoned to Syracuse the sons of Anaxilas, who had been tyrant of Zancle, reminded them with great gifts of the benefaction of Gelon toward their father, and advised them, since they were now grown to manhood, to demand an accounting from Micythus, who was their guardian, and to take over the dominion themselves.

66.2. When these returned to Rhegium and demanded from the guardian an account of his administration, Micythus, being a good man, gathered the paternal friends of the boys and rendered the account so purely that all who were present admired both his justice and his fidelity, and the boys, repenting of what had been done, asked Micythus to take over the rule again and, having the authority and rank of a father, to administer the affairs of the dominion.

66.3. Micythus, however, did not consent, but, having handed over everything accurately and put his own property aboard a vessel, sailed out from Rhegium, escorted by the goodwill of the crowds. He, then, having come down to Greece, lived out his life at Tegea in Arcadia, being praised.

66.4. Hieron the king of the Syracusans died at Catana, and met with heroic honors, as having become the founder of the city. He, then, having ruled eleven years, left the kingship to Thrasybulus his brother, who ruled the Syracusans one year.

67.1. When Lysanias was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Appius Claudius and Titus Quintius Capitolinus. In their time Thrasybulus the king of the Syracusans was driven out of his rule; concerning whom, as we record the particulars, it is necessary, going back a little in the chronology, to set forth everything clearly from the beginning.

67.2. Gelon the son of Deinomenes, having far surpassed the others in valor and generalship, and having outgeneralled the Carthaginians, conquered the barbarians in a great battle, as has been said before; and, having treated reasonably those whom he had subdued, and in general having behaved benevolently toward all his neighbors, he met with great acceptance among the Sicilians.

67.3. He, then, being loved by all because of his gentleness, lived out his life peacefully until his death. Hieron, the eldest of the brothers, succeeding to the kingship, did not rule his subjects in like manner;

67.4. for he was both avaricious and violent and, in general, most alien to simplicity and nobility. Therefore several, wishing to revolt, restrained their own impulses because of the glory of Gelon and the goodwill toward all the Sicilians.

67.5. But after the death of Hieron, Thrasybulus his brother, taking over the rule, surpassed in baseness the one who had reigned before him. For, being violent and bloodthirsty, he put to death many of the citizens contrary to justice, and not a few he exiled on false slanders and took up their property into the royal treasury; and, in general, hating and being hated by those he wronged, he hired a multitude of mercenaries, preparing a counterforce to the citizen forces.

67.6. Becoming ever more hateful to the citizens, and outraging many and putting others to death, he compelled those he wronged to revolt. Therefore the Syracusans, having set leaders over themselves, rushed in full force to the overthrow of the tyranny, and, marshaled by their leaders, held fast to their freedom.

67.7. Thrasybulus, seeing the whole city campaigning against him, at first tried by argument to put down the faction; but when he saw the impulse of the Syracusans unceasing, he gathered together from Catana those settled there by Hieron and the other allies, and besides a multitude of mercenaries, so that all together came to about fifteen thousand.

67.8. He, then, having seized the part of the city called Achradina and the Island, which was strong, and setting out from these, carried on the war against those who had revolted.

68.1. The Syracusans first seized the part of the city called Tyche, and, setting out from this, sent ambassadors to Gela and Acragas and Selinus, and besides to Himera and to the cities of the Sicels lying in the interior, asking them quickly to come together and help to liberate Syracuse.

68.2. As all readily obeyed, and quickly sent—some foot and cavalry soldiers, others warships fitted out for a sea-battle—a force adequate for the Syracusans was quickly gathered. Therefore the Syracusans, having equipped their ships and drawn up their land force, showed themselves ready to contend both by land and by sea.

68.3. Thrasybulus, being abandoned by his allies and having his hopes in the mercenaries themselves, was master of Achradina and the Island, while the rest of the city the Syracusans held. After this Thrasybulus, sailing with his ships against the enemy, and being defeated in the sea-battle, lost many triremes, and with the rest fled for refuge to the Island.

68.4. Likewise also, having led out his land force from Achradina and drawn up in the suburbs, he was defeated, and, having lost many men, was compelled to withdraw again to Achradina. Finally, despairing of the tyranny, he made terms with the Syracusans, and, having agreed about the matters concerning them, departed under truce to Locri.

68.5. The Syracusans, having in this way liberated their native land, granted the mercenaries to depart from Syracuse, and, having liberated the other cities that were under tyrannies or held garrisons, restored the democracies to the cities.

68.6. From these times, being at peace, the city received much increase toward prosperity, and preserved the democracy for nearly sixty years, until the tyranny of Dionysius.

68.7. Thrasybulus, having taken over a well-founded kingship, through his own baseness shamefully lost the rule, and, fleeing to Locri, there lived out the rest of his time as a private citizen.

68.8. While these things were being done, at Rome there were then for the first time appointed four tribunes of the people, Gaius Sicinius and Lucius Nemetorius, and besides these Marcus Duillius and Spurius Acilius.

69.1. When the annual period had passed, at Athens Lysitheus was archon, and at Rome the consuls established were Lucius Valerius Publicola and Titus Aemilius Mamercus. In their time in Asia Artabanus, a Hyrcanian by birth, but having the greatest power with King Xerxes and commanding the bodyguard, resolved to slay Xerxes and to transfer the kingship to himself. Having communicated the plot to Mithridates the eunuch, who was chamberlain of the king and held the most authoritative trust, and who was also a kinsman and friend of Artabanus, he consented to the plot.

69.2. Brought in by him by night into the bedchamber, Artabanus slew Xerxes, and then rushed against the sons of the king. These were three in number: Darius the eldest and Artaxerxes, who were tarrying in the palace, and the third, Hystaspes, who was abroad at that time; for he held the satrapy in Bactra.

69.3. Artabanus, then, coming while it was still night to Artaxerxes, said that Darius his brother had become the slayer of their father and was drawing the kingship to himself.

69.4. He advised him, therefore, before that man should seize the rule, to see to it that he should not become a slave through carelessness, but should reign, having taken vengeance on the slayer of his father; and he undertook to furnish him the king's bodyguard as helpers.

69.5. Artaxerxes being persuaded, and at once having slain his brother Darius with the bodyguard, Artabanus, seeing his design succeeding, and taking his own sons and saying that he had the opportunity to win the kingship, struck Artaxerxes with his sword.

69.6. But he, being wounded and suffering nothing fatal from the blow, defended himself against Artabanus, and, dealing him a mortal blow, slew him. Artaxerxes, having unexpectedly been saved and having taken vengeance on the slayer of his father, took over the kingship of the Persians. Xerxes, then, ended his life in the manner described, having reigned over the Persians more than twenty years, and Artaxerxes, succeeding to the rule, reigned forty years.

70.1. When Archedemides was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Aulus Verginius and Titus Minucius, and the seventy-ninth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Xenophon the Corinthian won the stadium-race. In their time the Thasians, having revolted from the Athenians over a dispute about mines, were besieged into surrender by the Athenians and compelled again to be ranged under them.

70.2. Likewise too the Aeginetans having revolted, the Athenians, intending to subdue Aegina, undertook to besiege it; for this city, often successful in the contests at sea, was full of spirit and was well supplied with money and triremes, and in general was always hostilely disposed toward the Athenians.

70.3. Therefore, campaigning against it, they ravaged the country, and, besieging Aegina, were eager to take it by storm. For in general, having advanced far in power, they no longer treated their allies reasonably as before, but ruled them violently and arrogantly.

70.4. Therefore most of the allies, being unable to bear the harshness, talked with one another about revolt, and some, despising the common council, ranged themselves independently.

70.5. While these things were being done, the Athenians, holding command of the sea, sent ten thousand settlers to Amphipolis, enrolling some from the citizens, others from the allies; and, having apportioned the land by lot, for a time they prevailed over the Thracians, but afterward, having gone up into Thrace, it came about that all who invaded the country of the Thracians were destroyed by those called the Edonians.

71.1. When Tlepolemus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Titus Quintius and Quintus Servilius Structus. In their time Artaxerxes the king of the Persians, having just recovered the kingship, first punished those who had shared in the slaying of his father, and then arranged the affairs of the kingdom advantageously for himself.

71.2. For of the existing satraps he removed those hostilely disposed toward him, and, choosing the suitable men from among his own friends, handed over the satrapies. He took thought also of the revenues and the preparation of his forces, and, in general, administering the whole kingdom reasonably, met with great acceptance among the Persians.

71.3. The inhabitants of Egypt, learning of the death of Xerxes and of the whole attack and confusion in the kingdom of the Persians, resolved to lay claim to their freedom. At once, then, gathering a force, they revolted from the Persians, and, having expelled the Persian tax-collectors of Egypt, established as king the man called Inaros.

71.4. He at first enrolled soldiers from the natives, and after this, gathering mercenaries also from the foreign peoples, prepared an adequate force. He sent ambassadors also to the Athenians about an alliance, promising them that, if they should liberate the Egyptians, he would grant them a share of the kingdom and would render them many times the favors in return for the benefaction.

71.5. The Athenians, judging it advantageous for themselves both to humble the Persians as far as possible and to make the Egyptians their own against the reverses of fortune, voted to come to the aid of the Egyptians with three hundred triremes.

71.6. The Athenians, then, with much zeal were occupied about the preparation of the fleet. Artaxerxes, learning of the revolt of the Egyptians and the preparations for war, resolved that he must surpass the Egyptians in the magnitude of his forces. At once, then, from all the satrapies he enrolled soldiers and built ships, and made provision for all the rest of the preparation. And the affairs in Asia and Egypt were in this state.

72.1. In Sicily, the tyranny in Syracuse having just been overthrown and all the cities throughout the island liberated, all Sicily received much increase toward prosperity; for the Sicilians, being at peace and possessing good land, because of the abundance of the crops quickly recovered in their fortunes and filled the country with slaves and cattle and the rest of prosperity, receiving great revenues and spending nothing on their accustomed wars.

72.2. But after this they fell again into wars and factions for the following reasons. Having overthrown the tyranny of Thrasybulus, they gathered an assembly, and, deliberating about their own democracy, all unanimously voted to construct a colossal statue of Zeus the Liberator, and each year to sacrifice festivals of freedom and to hold notable games on the same day on which, having overthrown the tyrant, they had liberated their native land; and to sacrifice in the games to the gods four hundred and fifty bulls, and to spend these on the feasting of the citizens.

72.3. All the magistracies they assigned to the original citizens; but the foreigners who had been made citizens under Gelon they did not think worthy to share in this honor, either judging them unworthy, or distrusting them, lest, having been brought up under a tyranny and having campaigned with a monarch, they should attempt revolution; which indeed came to pass. For, Gelon having enrolled more than ten thousand foreign mercenaries as citizens, of these more than seven thousand survived at the time in question.

73.1. These, being driven from the honor of the elections, bore it with difficulty, and, having taken counsel together, revolted from the Syracusans, and seized of the city both Achradina and the Island, both these places having their own well-built wall.

73.2. The Syracusans, having fallen again into confusion, held the rest of the city, and walled off the part of it that faced Epipolae, and prepared for themselves much security; for at once they readily shut off the revolters from going out into the country and quickly made them lack provisions.

73.3. The foreigners were inferior in numbers to the Syracusans, but in experience in war far surpassed them; therefore, assaults occurring throughout the city and partial engagements, the foreigners had the advantage in the battles, but, being shut off from the country, were inferior in supplies and were in want of provisions. And the affairs in Sicily were in this state.

74.1. When Conon was archon at Athens, at Rome the consular office was held by Quintus Fabius Vibulanus and Tiberius Aemilius Mamercus. In their time Artaxerxes the king of the Persians appointed as general for the war against the Egyptians Achaemenes, the son of Darius and his own uncle; and, having handed over to him cavalry and infantry soldiers, more than three hundred thousand, ordered him to subdue the Egyptians.

74.2. He, then, when he had arrived in Egypt, encamped near the Nile, and, having refreshed his force from the journey, prepared the things for the battle; and the Egyptians, having gathered their force from Libya and Egypt, awaited the alliance from the Athenians.

74.3. When the Athenians had put in at Egypt with two hundred ships, and, together with the Egyptians, had drawn up against the Persians, a fierce battle took place. And for a while the Persians, being superior in numbers, had the advantage; but after this, the Athenians forcing them back and routing those ranged against them and slaying many, the rest of the multitude of the barbarians rushed to flight.

74.4. As there was much slaughter in the flight, finally the Persians, having lost the greater part of their force, fled for refuge to the place called the White Wall, while the Athenians, having gained the victory by their own manly courage, pursued the barbarians together to the aforesaid place, and did not desist from the siege.

74.5. Artaxerxes, learning of the defeat of his men, first sent some of his friends with much money to Lacedaemon, and asked the Lacedaemonians to make war on the Athenians, thinking that thus the Athenians who were victorious in Egypt would sail off to Athens to aid their native land;

74.6. but, the Lacedaemonians neither receiving the money nor otherwise heeding the requests of the Persians, Artaxerxes, despairing of the aid from the Lacedaemonians, prepared other forces; and, having set over them as commanders Artabazus and Megabyzus, men distinguished in valor, he sent them out to make war on the Egyptians.

75.1. When Euthippus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Quintus Servilius and Spurius Postumius Albinus. In their time in Asia Artabazus and Megabyzus, having been sent out for the war against the Egyptians, set out from Persia, having cavalry and infantry soldiers more than three hundred thousand.

75.2. When they came into Cilicia and Phoenicia, they refreshed their land forces from the journey, and ordered the Cyprians and Phoenicians and the inhabitants of Cilicia to build ships. Three hundred triremes having been fitted out, they equipped these with the best marines and with arms and missiles and the other things useful for a sea-battle.

75.3. These men, then, were busy about the preparations and made exercises of the soldiers and trained all in the experiences of war, and spent about these things pretty much the whole of the current year;

75.4. but the Athenians in Egypt were besieging those who had fled to the White Wall about Memphis; and, the Persians defending themselves vigorously, being unable to take the place, they remained at the siege for the year.

76.1. In Sicily the Syracusans, making war on the foreigners who had revolted, made continuous assaults on Achradina and the Island, and in a sea-battle conquered the revolters, but by land were not strong enough to drive them out of the city because of the strength of the places.

76.2. After this, a battle taking place in the country, and the combatants on both sides running risks zealously, it came about that not a few fell on both sides, but the Syracusans conquered. After the battle the Syracusans crowned the chosen men, being six hundred, who had been the cause of the victory, giving them as a prize of valor a mina of silver each.

76.3. While these things were being done, Ducetius the leader of the Sicels, being bitterly disposed toward the inhabitants of Catana because of the taking away of the land of the Sicels, campaigned against them. Likewise too the Syracusans campaigned against Catana, and these jointly apportioned the land by lot and made war on those settled there by Hieron the ruler; and, the inhabitants of Catana having ranged themselves against them and been worsted in several battles, these were driven out of Catana, and acquired the place now called Aetna, formerly called Inessa, while those who had originally been from Catana recovered their native land after a long time.

76.4. These things being done, those who had been driven from their own cities under the dominion of Hieron, having those who fought together with them, returned to their native lands, and drove out of the cities those who had unjustly taken the cities of others; among these were the Geloans and the Acragantines and the Himeraeans.

76.5. Likewise too the Rhegians together with the Zanclaeans drove out the sons of Anaxilas who held dominion and liberated their native lands. After this the Geloans, having originally settled Camarina, apportioned it by lot; and the cities, nearly all of them, having rushed to the ending of the wars and made a common decree, came to terms with the foreigners settled among them, and, having received back the exiles, restored the cities to the original citizens, while to the foreigners who, because of the dominations, held cities not their own, they conceded to carry off their own property and that all should dwell in Messenia.

76.6. The factions, then, and disturbances in the cities of Sicily were ended in this way, and the cities, having cast off the foreign constitutions, nearly all apportioned their own lands by lot to all the citizens.

77.1. When Phrasiclides was archon at Athens, the eightieth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Toryllas the Thessalian won the stadium-race, and the Romans appointed as consuls Quintus Fabius and Titus Quintius Capitolinus. In their time, in Asia the generals of the Persians, having crossed into Cilicia, built three hundred ships well equipped for warlike use, and, taking the land army, advanced by land through Syria and Phoenicia; and, the fleet sailing alongside the land army, they came to Memphis in Egypt.

77.2. And at first they raised the siege of the White Wall, having dismayed the Egyptians and the Athenians; but after this, deliberating prudently, they avoided drawing up face to face, but were ambitious to end the war by stratagems. Therefore, as the Attic ships were lying at anchor in the island called Prosopitis, by cutting off with trenches the river that flowed around it they made the island mainland.

77.3. The ships suddenly settling on the dry land, the Egyptians, dismayed, abandoned the Athenians and came to terms with the Persians; but the Athenians, being bereft of allies and seeing their ships rendered useless, burned these, in order that they might not fall into the hands of the enemy, while they themselves, not dismayed at the severity of the situation, exhorted one another to do nothing unworthy of the contests previously accomplished.

77.4. Therefore, surpassing in valor those who died at Thermopylae for Greece, they were ready to fight it out against the enemy. But the generals of the Persians, Artabazus and Megabyzus, seeing the surpassing daring of the enemy and reckoning that it was not possible to destroy these men without losing many myriads of their own, made a truce with the Athenians, by which they were to depart without danger from Egypt.

77.5. The Athenians, then, through their own valor having met with safety, departed from Egypt, and, going through Libya to Cyrene, were unexpectedly saved into their native land.

77.6. While these things were being done, in Athens Ephialtes the son of Sophonides, being a popular leader and having provoked the multitude against the Areopagites, persuaded the people by a decree to diminish the council of the Areopagus and to abolish the ancestral and far-famed customs. But he did not escape unpunished, having attempted such great lawlessness, but, being slain by night, met with an obscure end of his life.

78.1. When the annual period had passed, at Athens Philocles was archon, and at Rome the consular office was succeeded to by Aulus Postumius Regulus and Spurius Furius Mediolanus. In their time, war having arisen for the Corinthians and Epidaurians against the Athenians, the Athenians campaigned against them, and, a fierce battle taking place, the Athenians conquered.

78.2. With a great fleet putting in against those called the Halieis, they went up into the Peloponnese and slew not a few of the enemy. As the Peloponnesians formed up and gathered a notable force, a battle took place against the Athenians about the place called Cecryphaleia, in which again the Athenians conquered.

78.3. As such successes had come to them, seeing that the Aeginetans were elated by their previous deeds and were hostilely disposed toward them, they resolved to subdue them.

78.4. Therefore, the Athenians having sent a notable fleet against them, the inhabitants of Aegina, having great experience and reputation in the contests at sea, were not dismayed at the superiority of the Athenians, but, having sufficient triremes and constructing others besides, fought at sea, and, being worsted, lost seventy triremes; and, broken in spirit because of the magnitude of the calamity, they were compelled to be enrolled into the confederacy of the Athenians. These things, then, Leocrates the general accomplished for the Athenians, having waged the whole war against the Aeginetans for nine months.

78.5. While these things were being done, in Sicily Ducetius the king of the Sicels, distinguished in birth and powerful in those times, founded the city Menaenum and apportioned the neighboring land to the settlers; and, having campaigned against a notable city, Morgantina, and subdued it, he won reputation among his fellow-countrymen.

79.1. When the annual period had passed, at Athens Bion was archon, and at Rome the consular office was succeeded to by Publius Servilius Structus and Lucius Aebutius Albas. In their time, a dispute having arisen for the Corinthians and Megarians about a bordering territory, the cities fell into war.

79.2. At first they continued ravaging one another's land and making small engagements; but, as the difference increased, the Megarians, ever more worsted and fearing the Corinthians, made the Athenians their allies.

79.3. Therefore, the cities being again rivals in their forces, and the Corinthians together with the Peloponnesians campaigning with a notable force into the Megarian territory, the Athenians sent an alliance to the Megarians, of which Myronides, a man admired for his virtue, was in command; and, a fierce line of battle taking place for a long time, and the manly courage of each side being equal, finally the Athenians conquered and slew many of the enemy.

79.4. The Phocians began a war against the Dorians, the ancestors of the Lacedaemonians, who inhabited three cities, Cytinium and Boeum and Erineum, lying below the ridge called Parnassus.

79.5. At first, then, having subdued the Dorians by force, they held their cities; but after this the Lacedaemonians sent Nicomedes the son of Cleomenes to come to the aid of the Dorians because of kinship; and he had fifteen hundred Lacedaemonians, and from the other Peloponnesians ten thousand.

79.6. He, then, being guardian of Pleistonax, who was a child king, with so great a force came to the aid of the Dorians, and, having conquered the Phocians and recovered their cities, reconciled the Phocians and Dorians.

80.1. The Athenians, learning that the Lacedaemonians had ended the war against the Phocians and were about to make their return home, resolved to attack the Lacedaemonians on their march. They campaigned, then, against them, taking along the Argives and Thessalians; and, with fifty ships and fourteen thousand soldiers, setting upon them, they occupied the passes about Geraneia.

80.2. The Lacedaemonians, learning the matters concerning the Athenians, came to Tanagra in Boeotia. As the Athenians came into Boeotia and a line of battle took place, a fierce battle was joined; and, the Thessalians in the battle going over to the Lacedaemonians, but the Athenians and the Argives none the less fighting it out, not a few fell on both sides, and, night coming on, they were parted.

80.3. After this, much provision being conveyed to the Athenians from Attica, the Thessalians, resolving to attack it, and having taken their evening meal at that very hour, by night went to meet those who were conveying the provisions.

80.4. As the guarding Athenians were ignorant and received the Thessalians as friends, it came about that many and varied contests took place over the provisions. For at first the Thessalians, being received by the enemy because of their ignorance, slew those they met, and, being in formation against men in confusion, engaging, slew many.

80.5. The Athenians in the encampment, learning of the attack of the Thessalians, came in haste, and, having routed the Thessalians at the first onset, made much slaughter.

80.6. As the Lacedaemonians came to the aid of the Thessalians with their force in formation, and a line of battle of the whole armies took place, it came about, because of the rivalry that had arisen, that many were slain on both sides. Finally, the battle taking an indecisive end, it came about that both the Lacedaemonians disputed about the victory and the Athenians. Then, as night came on and the victory was indecisive, they sent embassies to one another and made a four-month truce.

81.1. When the annual period had passed, at Athens Mnesitheides was archon, and at Rome the consuls established were Lucius Lucretius and Titus Veturius Cichorinus. In their time the Thebans, being humbled because of the alliance they had made with Xerxes, sought a way by which they might recover their ancestral strength and glory.

81.2. Therefore, all the Boeotians despising them and no longer paying heed to the Thebans, they asked the Lacedaemonians to help win for their city the whole leadership of Boeotia; and they undertook, in return for this favor, to make war privately on the Athenians, so that there would be no necessity for the Spartiates to lead a land force outside the Peloponnese.

81.3. The Lacedaemonians . . . judging that they spoke advantageously, and thinking that Thebes, if they should increase it, would be a sort of rival to that of the Athenians; therefore, having then at Tanagra a ready and great army, they made the circuit of the city of the Thebans greater, and compelled the cities in Boeotia to be subject to the Thebans.

81.4. The Athenians, eager to thwart the design of the Lacedaemonians, mustered a notable force and chose as general Myronides the son of Callias. He, having enrolled enough of the citizens, gave them orders, appointing a day on which he intended to make the departure from the city.

81.5. When the appointed time came, and some of the soldiers had not arrived at the designated muster, taking those who had come he advanced into Boeotia. Some of the commanders and friends said that it was necessary to await the latecomers, but Myronides, being a prudent and at the same time vigorous general, said that he would not wait; for he declared that those who voluntarily came late to the expedition would in the battle behave ignobly and timorously, and on this account would not even withstand the dangers for their native land, while those who had been ready and present on the appointed day were clearly such as would not abandon their post in the war; which indeed came to pass.

81.6. For, leading forward few soldiers, and these the best in manly courage, he drew up in Boeotia against many times more, and by storm overcame those ranged against him.

82.1. This deed seems to fall short of none of the lines of battle that had taken place in earlier times among the Athenians; for neither the victory that took place at Marathon, nor the success against the Persians at Plataea, nor the other far-famed deeds of the Athenians seem to surpass the battle in which Myronides conquered the Boeotians.

82.2. For of those, some were against barbarians, others were accomplished with other allies, but this line of battle the Athenians, having risked it alone, conquered, and contended against the best of the Greeks.

82.3. For the Boeotians seem, in their endurance of dangers and in their warlike contests, to fall short of none of the others; at any rate later the Thebans themselves, at Leuctra and Mantineia, ranged alone against all the Lacedaemonians and their allies, both acquired the greatest glory for courage and unexpectedly became leaders of all Greece.

82.4. Of the historians, although this battle was distinguished, no one wrote either its manner or its disposition. Myronides, then, having conquered the Boeotians in a distinguished battle, became a rival to the most distinguished leaders before him, Themistocles and Miltiades and Cimon.

82.5. Myronides, after the victory, having taken Tanagra by siege, demolished its walls, and, going over the whole of Boeotia, cut and destroyed it, and, dividing the spoils among the soldiers, adorned all with abundant gains.

83.1. The Boeotians, provoked at the destruction of their country, gathered together in full force, and, campaigning, assembled a great force. A battle taking place at Oenophyta in Boeotia, and both sides vigorously enduring the danger in their spirits, they spent the whole day in the battle; and barely did the Athenians rout the Boeotians, and Myronides became master of all the cities in Boeotia except Thebes.

83.2. After this, breaking camp from Boeotia, he campaigned against the Locrians called Opuntians. These, having subdued at the first onset and taken hostages, he invaded the Parnasian country.

83.3. Likewise to the Locrians he also subdued the Phocians, and, taking hostages, broke camp into Thessaly, accusing them concerning the treason that had taken place and ordering them to receive back the exiles; and, the Pharsalians not receiving them, he besieged the city.

83.4. But since he could not take the city by force, and the Pharsalians endured the siege for a long time, then, despairing of the affairs in Thessaly, he returned to Athens. Myronides, then, having in a short time accomplished great deeds, won a far-famed reputation among the citizens. These things, then, were done in this year.

84.1. When Callias was archon at Athens, among the Eleans the eighty-first Olympiad was celebrated, in which Polymnastus the Cyrenaean won the stadium-race, and at Rome the consuls were Servius Sulpicius and Publius Volumnius Amentinus.

84.2. In their time Tolmides, who was appointed over the naval force, rivaling the virtue and glory of Myronides, was eager to accomplish something notable.

84.3. Therefore, since at that time no one had previously ravaged Laconia, he urged the people to lay waste the country of the Spartiates, and undertook, taking a thousand hoplites aboard the triremes, with these to ravage Laconia and to humble the glory of the Spartiates.

84.4. The Athenians having consented, wishing secretly to lead out more hoplites, he contrived something of this sort. The citizens supposed that he would enroll into the army those of the young men who were in the prime of their ages and most vigorous in their bodies; but Tolmides, being eager to lead out for the expedition not only the appointed thousand, going to each of the young men distinguished in strength, said that he was about to enroll him; it would be better, then, he said, to campaign voluntarily rather than to seem to be compelled through the levies.

84.5. When by this argument he had persuaded more than three thousand to enroll themselves voluntarily, and saw that the rest were no longer eager, then he enrolled the agreed-upon thousand from the others.

84.6. When the other preparations for the expedition were ready, he put out with fifty triremes and four thousand hoplites; and, putting in at Methone in Laconia, he took this place, but, the Lacedaemonians coming to its aid, he broke camp, and, sailing along to Gytheium, the dockyard of the Lacedaemonians, having subdued this city too and burned the docks of the Lacedaemonians, he ravaged the country.

84.7. From there, putting out, he sailed from Cephallenia to Zacynthus; and, having subdued this and won over all the cities in Cephallenia, he sailed across to the other side and put in at Naupactus. Likewise too, having taken this at the first onset, he settled in it the notable men of the Messenians, who had been released under truce by the Lacedaemonians;

84.8. for about the same time the Lacedaemonians, having warred for a long while against the Helots and Messenians, then prevailing over both, released those from Ithome under truce, as has been said before, and, having punished the authors of the revolt among the Helots, enslaved the rest.

85.1. When Sosistratus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Publius Valerius Publicola and Gaius Clodius Regillus. In their time Tolmides was tarrying about Boeotia, and the Athenians appointed as general Pericles the son of Xanthippus, one of the good men, and, giving him fifty triremes and a thousand hoplites, sent him to the Peloponnese.

85.2. He ravaged much of the Peloponnese, and, crossing into Acarnania, won over all the cities except Oeniadae. The Athenians, then, in this year ruled over very many cities, and acquired great glory for courage and generalship.

86.1. When Ariston was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Quintus Fabius Vibulanus and Lucius Cornelius Curitinus. In their time a five-year truce came about for the Athenians and Peloponnesians, Cimon the Athenian having arranged it.

86.2. In Sicily a war arose for the Egestaeans and Lilybaeans about a territory by the river Mazarus; and, a fierce battle taking place, it came about that many fell on both sides and the cities did not cease from their rivalry.

86.3. After the enrollment of citizens that had taken place in the cities and the redistribution of the land, many having been enrolled as citizens at random and as it chanced, the cities were diseased and fell again into political factions and disturbances; and most of all the evil prevailed in Syracuse.

86.4. For a certain man named Tyndarides, a man full of audacity and daring, at first took up many of the poor, and, building up their bodies, made them ready bodyguards for himself with a view to a tyranny. After this, being now manifestly one who reached for dominion, he was put on trial for his life and condemned.

86.5. As he was being led off to prison, those who had been cared for by him gathered together and laid hands on those leading him off. Confusion arising throughout the city, the most respectable of the citizens gathered together, and, having seized those who were attempting revolution, slew them together with Tyndarides. As this happened several times, and men desiring tyranny, the people were led to imitate the Athenians and to pass a law similar to the one written among them concerning ostracism.

87.1. For among the Athenians each of the citizens had to write on a potsherd the name of the citizen who seemed most able to tyrannize over the citizens, but among the Syracusans the most powerful of the citizens was written on an olive leaf, and, the leaves having been counted, the one who received the most leaves had to flee for five years.

87.2. For in this way they supposed they would humble the spirits of those most powerful in their native lands; for in general they did not take punishments for wickedness from the lawbreakers, but made a humbling of the power and increase of the men. The Athenians, then, named this kind of legislation, from what had occurred, ostracism, but the Syracusans petalism.

87.3. This law continued among the Athenians for a long time, but among the Syracusans was quickly abolished for the following reasons.

87.4. As the greatest men were being exiled, the most respectable of the citizens, those able through their own virtue to set right many of the common affairs, withdrew from public business, and, because of the fear from the law, continued to live as private men, and, taking care of their own property, inclined toward luxury; while the most worthless of the citizens and those distinguished in audacity gave thought to public affairs and incited the multitudes to disturbance and revolution.

87.5. Therefore, factions arising again, and the many being turned to differences, the city fell again into continuous and great disturbances; for a multitude of demagogues and informers prevailed, and cleverness of speech was practiced by the younger men, and, in general, many exchanged the worthless ways of life for the ancient and serious discipline, and, while they advanced in their fortunes because of the peace, there came to be little thought of concord and of acting justly.

87.6. Therefore the Syracusans, having changed their minds, abolished the law concerning petalism, having used it for a short time. And the affairs in Sicily were in this state.

88.1. When Lysicrates was archon at Athens, at Rome there were established as consuls Gaius Nautius Rutilus and Lucius Minucius Carutianus. In their time Pericles the general of the Athenians, having disembarked in the Peloponnese, ravaged the country of the Sicyonians.

88.2. As the Sicyonians came out against him in full force and a battle took place, Pericles, having conquered and slain many in the flight, shut them up in a siege. Making assaults on the walls and being unable to take the city, and, moreover, the Lacedaemonians having sent aid to the besieged, he broke camp from Sicyon; and, sailing to Acarnania and overrunning the country of the Oeniadae and gathering a quantity of spoils, he sailed away from Acarnania.

88.3. After this, coming to the Chersonese, he apportioned the land by lot to a thousand of the citizens. While these things were being done, Tolmides the other general, having gone over to Euboea, divided it and the land of the Naxians among another thousand citizens.

88.4. In Sicily, as the Tyrrhenians were plundering the sea, the Syracusans, having chosen as admiral Phayllus, sent him to Tyrrhenia. He, having sailed out, at first plundered the island called Aethaleia, but, having secretly received money from the Tyrrhenians, sailed back to Sicily, having accomplished nothing worth remembering.

88.5. The Syracusans, having condemned this man as a traitor and exiled him, appointed another general, Apelles, and sent him out against the Tyrrhenians with sixty triremes. He, having overrun coastal Tyrrhenia, departed for Cyrnus, which was held by the Tyrrhenians in those times; and, having plundered very much of the island and subdued Aethaleia, he returned to Syracuse, bringing a multitude of captives and leading off not a little other booty.

88.6. After this Ducetius, the leader of the Sicels, brought all the cities of the same nation, except Hybla, into one and common confederacy; and, being a vigorous man, he reached for greater things, and, having gathered from the common council of the Sicels a notable force, removed Menae, which was his native place, to the plain, and near the precinct of those called the Palici founded a notable city, which he named after the aforesaid gods Palice.

89.1. Since we have made mention of these gods, it is not right to pass over the antiquity and the marvelousness concerning the sanctuary, and, in general, the peculiarity concerning the so-called craters. For they relate in legend that this precinct surpasses the others in antiquity and reverence, many marvels being handed down concerning it.

89.2. For first there are craters, not great in size on the whole, which throw up extraordinary springs from an unutterable depth, and have a nature much like cauldrons that are heated by much fire and throw up the water boiling hot.

89.3. The water that is thrown up has the appearance of being boiling hot, but does not have accurate verification, because no one dares to touch it; for so great is the consternation caused by the welling up of the liquids that it seems that what happens comes about through some divine compulsion.

89.4. For the water has the smell of pungent sulfur, and the chasm sends forth a great and terrible roaring; and, what is more marvelous than these things, the liquid neither overflows nor sinks, but has a motion and force of stream lifted up to a height, which is wonderful.

89.5. As there is such a sanctity about the precinct, the greatest of oaths are accomplished there, and on those who swear falsely the punishment of the divine power swiftly follows; for some, having been deprived of their sight, make their departure from the precinct.

89.6. As there is great superstition, those who have disputes, whenever they are overpowered by some superior force, are judged by the examination through these oaths. This precinct has from certain times been kept inviolate, and to unfortunate servants who have fallen into the hands of harsh masters it furnishes much aid;

89.7. for those who take refuge in it the masters have no authority to lead away by force, and they remain unharmed until the masters, having persuaded them on stated humane conditions and given through oaths the pledges concerning the agreements, lead them away.

89.8. And no one is recorded who, having given this pledge to servants, transgressed it; for so much does the superstition of the gods make those who have sworn faithful to their slaves. The precinct lies in a plain fit for the gods, and is sufficiently adorned with porticoes and the other lodging-places. Concerning these things, then, let what we have said suffice, and we return to the narrative continuous with what has been recorded before.

90.1. For Ducetius, having founded Palice and enclosed it with a notable wall, apportioned the bordering land by lot. It came about that this city, because of the excellence of the land and the multitude of the inhabitants, received quick increase.

90.2. But, having flourished for no long time, it was razed, and remained uninhabited until our own times; concerning which we shall record the particulars in their proper times.

90.3. And the affairs in Sicily were in this state. In Italy, after the razing of Sybaris by the Crotoniates, fifty-eight years later, Thessalus, having gathered together the survivors of the Sybarites, founded Sybaris anew, lying between two rivers, the Sybaris and the Crathis.

90.4. Having good land, they quickly rose in their fortunes. But, having held the city a few years, they were again driven out of Sybaris; concerning which we shall try to record the particulars in the following book.

91.1. When Antidotus was archon at Athens, the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Postumius and Marcus Horatius. In their time Ducetius, the Sicel who held the leadership, seized Aetna, having treacherously murdered its ruler, and, breaking camp into the country of the Acragantines with his force, besieged Motyum, which was garrisoned by the Acragantines; and, the Acragantines and Syracusans coming to its aid, joining battle and gaining the advantage, he drove both out of their camps.

91.2. And then, as winter set in, they parted to their own lands; and the Syracusans condemned the general Bolcon, who was the cause of the defeat and was reputed secretly to be cooperating with Ducetius, as a traitor and put him to death. As the summer was beginning, they appointed another general, to whom, giving a notable force, they ordered to subdue Ducetius.

91.3. He, having marched with his force, caught Ducetius encamped about Nomae; and, a great line of battle taking place, and many falling on both sides, barely did the Syracusans, forcing the Sicels, rout them, and in the flight slew many. Of those who escaped, the greater part were saved into the forts of the Sicels, while a few chose to share the same hopes with Ducetius.

91.4. While these things were being done, the Acragantines took by siege the fort Motyum, which was held by the Sicels with Ducetius, and, having led off their force to the Syracusans who had already conquered, encamped together with them. Ducetius, broken in his whole affairs because of the defeat, and his soldiers some abandoning him and others plotting against him, came into the uttermost despair.

92.1. Finally, seeing that his remaining friends were about to lay hands on him, anticipating them and slipping away by night, he rode off to Syracuse. While it was still night he came into the marketplace of the Syracusans, and, sitting down at the altars, became a suppliant of the city, and handed over both himself and the country of which he was master to the Syracusans.

92.2. As the multitude, because of the unexpectedness, streamed together into the marketplace, the magistrates gathered an assembly and put before it a deliberation about Ducetius, what they ought to do.

92.3. Some, then, of those accustomed to address the people advised punishing him as an enemy and inflicting the fitting punishment for his errors; but the most respectable of the elders, coming forward, declared that they ought to save the suppliant and to regard the fortune and the vengeance of the gods; for they ought to consider not what Ducetius deserved to suffer, but what it befitted the Syracusans to do; for to slay a man who had fallen by fortune was not fitting, but to preserve at once their piety toward the gods and the suppliant was worthy of the magnanimity of the people.

92.4. The people, as with a single voice, cried out from every side to save the suppliant. The Syracusans, then, having released Ducetius from punishment, sent him off to Corinth, and, ordering him to live out his life there, sent along with him a sufficient provision.