Book 5

The following are contained in the fifteenth of the books of Diodorus. How the Persians waged the war against Evagoras in Cyprus. How the Lacedaemonians, contrary to the common agreements, removed the Mantineans from their fatherland. Concerning the poems of Dionysius the tyrant. Concerning the arrest of Tiribazus and his acquittal. Concerning the death of Glos and the condemnation of Orontes. How Amyntas and the Lacedaemonians made war upon the Olynthians. How the Lacedaemonians seized the Cadmeia. How they enslaved the Greek cities contrary to the treaties. The founding of the island Pharos in the Adriatic. The expedition of Dionysius into Tyrrhenia and the plundering of the temple. The expedition of Dionysius against the Carthaginians, and a victory and a defeat. How the Thebans recovered the Cadmeia. How the Carthaginians, falling into a pestilential disease, were endangered. Concerning the Boeotian War and what was done in it. The expedition of the Triballi against Abdera. The expedition of the Persians against Egypt. How the Thebans, having conquered the Lacedaemonians in a most notable battle at Leuctra, laid claim to the leadership of the Greeks. What was done by the Thebans in their invasions of the Peloponnese. Concerning the training of Iphicrates and the things invented by him for campaigns. The expedition of the Lacedaemonians against Corcyra. Concerning the earthquake and flood that occurred about the Peloponnese, and the torch that appeared in the heavens. How among the Argives there occurred a great slaughter called the clubbing. Concerning Jason the tyrant of Pherae and his successors. The resettlement of Messene by the Thebans. The expedition of the Boeotians into Thessaly.

1.1. Throughout the whole work being accustomed to use the frankness usual to history, and to add the just praise to good men upon their noble deeds, and to deem the base, when they do wrong, worthy of just censure, we think that by such a method we shall both incite those well disposed by nature toward virtue, through the immortality conferred by glory, to undertake the noblest deeds, and shall turn away those of the contrary disposition, by the fitting reproaches, from their impulse toward wickedness. 1.2. Therefore, being come in our writing to those times in which the Lacedaemonians, unexpectedly defeated at Leuctra, fell into a great calamity, and again, stumbling at Mantinea, lost beyond hope the leadership of the Greeks, we think it our duty to preserve the principle of our writing and to make the fitting censure of the Lacedaemonians. 1.3. For who would not consider them worthy of accusation, who, having received from their forefathers a leadership most nobly founded, and preserved through the virtue of their ancestors for more than five hundred years, then looked on while it was dissolved through their own folly—not unreasonably? For those who had lived before them had acquired by many toils and great dangers so great a glory, dealing fairly and humanely with their subjects; but the later generations, dealing violently and harshly with their allies, and besides constituting unjust and arrogant wars against the Greeks, not unreasonably lost their rule through their own follies. 1.4. For in their misfortunes the hatred of the wronged found an opportunity to take vengeance on those who had wronged them first, and upon men who from their forefathers had been unconquered there followed so great a contempt as is likely to arise against those who destroy the virtues of their forefathers. 1.5. Therefore the Thebans, who before for many generations had been subject to their betters, then unexpectedly conquering these became leaders of the Greeks, while the Lacedaemonians, after the loss of their leadership, were never able to recover the dignity of their ancestors. 1.6. Having censured them sufficiently, we shall pass to the continuous narrative of our history, after first defining the times proper to the writing. The book before this, being the fourteenth of the whole work, ended its events at the enslavement of the Rhegians by Dionysius and the capture of Rome by the Gauls, which occurred in the year before the expedition of the Persians into Cyprus against King Evagoras; in this book, beginning from this war, we shall end at the year before the kingship of Philip the son of Amyntas. 2.1. For in the archonship at Athens of Mystichides the Romans appointed three military tribunes in place of the consuls, Marcus Furius, and besides Gaius and Aemilius. In this year Artaxerxes the King of the Persians campaigned against Evagoras the king of Cyprus. Having for a long time been occupied with the preparations for the war, he assembled a great force both naval and infantry; for the infantry army was thirty myriads with the cavalry, and he constructed more than three hundred triremes. 2.2. He appointed as generals of the infantry force Orontes his son-in-law, and of the naval force Tiribazus, a man enjoying great esteem among the Persians. These, taking over the forces at Phocaea and Cyme, came to Cilicia, and crossing over to Cyprus carried on the war vigorously. 2.3. Evagoras made an alliance with Acoris the king of the Egyptians, who was an enemy of the Persians, and obtained from him a considerable force; and from Hecatomnus the ruler of Caria, who secretly cooperated with him, he received a quantity of money for the maintenance of foreign forces; likewise too the others who were ill disposed toward the Persians, some secretly, some openly, he drew into sharing in the Persian war. 2.4. He was master in Cyprus of almost all the cities, and in Phoenicia of Tyre and certain others. He had ninety triremes, of which twenty were Tyrian and seventy Cyprian, and of his own soldiers six thousand, and from the allies far more than these. Besides these he enlisted many mercenaries, having abundance of money. The king of the Arabs also sent him not a few soldiers, and certain others who were under suspicion with the King of the Persians. 3.1. He, then, having so great resources, went down confidently to the war. And first, having not a few piratical ships, he lay in wait for the provisions of the enemy as they were conveyed, and some of them he destroyed at sea, others he prevented, and some he carried off. Therefore, the merchants not daring to convey grain to Cyprus, and great forces being gathered on the island, a famine quickly held the camp of the Persians. 3.2. The scarcity leading to faction, the mercenaries of the Persians, rushing upon the commanders and slaying some, filled the camp with tumult and faction. Hardly did the generals of the Persians and the leader of the naval force, named Glos, put an end to the faction. 3.3. Sailing out with the whole fleet and conveying a quantity of grain from Cilicia, they provided much abundance of food. To Evagoras a sufficient quantity of grain King Acoris conveyed from Egypt, and money and the rest of a sufficient supply he sent out. 3.4. Evagoras, seeing himself far inferior in naval force, manned sixty other ships and sent for fifty from Acoris out of Egypt, so as to have in all two hundred triremes. Adorning these strikingly for a sea-battle, and making continual trials and exercises, he prepared for a sea-fight. Therefore, when the royal fleet was sailing along to Citium, attacking the ships unexpectedly, he had many advantages over the Persians. 3.5. For he attacked with ships drawn up in order against ships in disorder, and fighting with men forewarned against men unprepared, he immediately at the first encounter prepared the victory beforehand; for, attacking with his triremes in close order against ships scattered and in confusion, some he destroyed, others he mastered. 3.6. Nevertheless, the admiral of the Persians, Glos, and the other commanders withstanding nobly, a fierce sea-battle took place, in which Evagoras at first had the advantage, but afterward, Glos bearing on with weight and fighting nobly, it came to pass that the men of Evagoras fled and lost many of their triremes. 4.1. The Persians, victorious in the sea-battle, gathered both forces at the city Citium. Setting out from this, they constituted a siege against Salamis, and ravaged the city both by land and by sea. 4.2. Tiribazus, after the sea-battle, crossing to Cilicia and going from there to the King, both reported the victory and brought back two thousand talents for the war; while Evagoras, before the sea-battle, having engaged on land by the sea with a part of the infantry force, had had the advantage and become confident for the future, but, having stumbled in the sea-battle and being shut up in a siege, was despondent. 4.3. Nevertheless, deciding to hold to the war, he left his son Pnytagoras, making him leader of all affairs in Cyprus, while he himself, taking ten triremes, by night unobserved by the enemy sailed out of Salamis. Conveyed to Egypt and meeting the king, he urged him to hold firmly to the war and to consider the war against the Persians a common one.

5.1. At the same time as these things were being done, the Lacedaemonians resolved to campaign against Mantinea, taking no thought of the treaties that had been made, for the following causes. There being already among the Greeks the common peace of Antalcidas, by which all the cities had got rid of their garrisons and received their independence by agreement, the Lacedaemonians, being by nature lovers of rule and warlike in their inclinations, did not endure the peace as a heavy burden, and longing for the dominion of Greece they had formerly held, were excited in their impulses toward revolution. 5.2. Immediately, then, they threw the cities into disorder and through their own friends contrived factions in them, of which some furnished plausible occasions to them for the disturbance. For having recovered their independence, they demanded an account from those who had presided over them during the leadership of the Lacedaemonians; and the reckonings being bitter because the peoples bore malice, and many being banished, they declared themselves helpers of those who were being put down by faction. 5.3. Receiving these and sending them out with a force for their returns, they enslaved first the weaker cities, and after this subduing the more notable ones too they made them subject, not even keeping the common treaties two years. Seeing that the city of the Mantineans was a neighbour and full of valiant men, they suspected its increase that came from the peace, and were eager to humble the spirits of the men. 5.4. Therefore at first, sending envoys to Mantinea, they ordered them to tear down their walls and themselves to remove, all of them, into the ancient five villages, out of which they had originally united into Mantinea. No one heeding them, they sent out a force and besieged the city. 5.5. The Mantineans, sending envoys to Athens, asked them to help them. The Athenians not choosing to transgress the common treaties, nevertheless by themselves the Mantineans, withstanding the siege, vigorously defended themselves against the enemy. And the affairs of Greece in this manner took the beginning of new wars. 6.1. In Sicily Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans, being released from the wars against the Carthaginians, had much peace and leisure. Therefore he undertook to write poems with much eagerness, and he sent for those who had a reputation in these, and honouring them above others he spent his time with them and had them as overseers and correctors of his poems. Being lifted up by these, because of his benefactions, with flattering speeches, he boasted much more over his poems than over his successes in war. 6.2. Of the poets who were with him, Philoxenus the dithyrambic poet, who had the greatest reputation for the composition of his own poetry, at the symposium, when the poems of the tyrant, being wretched, had been read, was asked what judgement he had concerning the poems. He answering rather frankly, the tyrant, taking offence at what was said, and blaming him that out of envy he had spoken slander, ordered the servants at once to lead him off to the quarries. 6.3. On the next day, the friends urging him to give pardon to Philoxenus, being reconciled with him he again took the same men to the symposium. As the drinking advanced, and again Dionysius boasted about his own poems, and brought forward certain verses of those that seemed successful, and asked, "What sort do the poems appear to you to be?"—he said nothing else, but calling the servants of Dionysius, ordered them to lead him off to the quarries. 6.4. At that time, then, on account of the wit of his words, Dionysius, smiling, bore the frankness, the laughter blunting the censure; but a little later, when both his acquaintances and Dionysius were deprecating the ill-timed frankness, Philoxenus made a paradoxical promise. For he said that by his answer he would preserve at once both the truth and the satisfaction of Dionysius; and he was not false to it. 6.5. For when the tyrant brought forward certain verses containing pitiable sufferings, and asked, "What sort do the poems appear?"—he said, "Pitiful," preserving both meanings through the ambiguity. For Dionysius took "pitiful" to mean piteous and full of compassion, and that such things are the achievements of good poets, whence he received him as having praised him; but the others, taking the true meaning, understood that "pitiful" was said as describing the nature of a failure. 7.1. Something similar happened also in the case of Plato the philosopher. For having sent for this man, at first he deemed him worthy of the greatest acceptance, seeing that he had a frankness worthy of philosophy; but later, taking offence at him over certain discourses, he became wholly estranged, and leading him to the market sold him as a slave for twenty minas. But the philosophers, coming together, bought him out and sent him to Greece, adding the friendly admonition that the wise man should associate with tyrants either as little as possible or as agreeably as possible. 7.2. Dionysius, not desisting from his eagerness for poetry, sent to the Olympic festival the most fine-voiced of the actors to perform his poems among the crowds with song. These at first, because of their fine voices, struck the hearers with amazement, but after this, when reflection set in, they were despised and carried off much laughter. 7.3. Dionysius, hearing of the contempt for his poems, fell into excessive grief; and the affliction ever taking on increase, a maddened disposition seized his soul, and saying that all his friends envied him, he suspected them as plotting. And at last he proceeded to such a pitch of frenzy and derangement that of his friends many he slew on false charges, and not a few he banished; among whom were Philistus and Leptines his brother, men distinguished in valour and who had rendered him many and great services in the wars. 7.4. These, then, fleeing to Thurii in Italy and meeting with great acceptance among the Italiotes, later, at the request of Dionysius, were reconciled, and returning to Syracuse were restored to their former goodwill; and Leptines married the daughter of Dionysius. These things, then, were done in this year.

8.1. In the archonship at Athens of Dexitheus the Romans appointed as consuls Lucius Lucretius and Servius Sulpicius. In this year Evagoras the king of the Salaminians came to Cyprus from Egypt, conveying money from Acoris the king of Egypt, less than had been expected. Finding Salamis vigorously besieged and being abandoned by his allies, he was compelled to send an embassy about a settlement. 8.2. Tiribazus, who had the command of the whole, said that he would agree to the settlement if Evagoras would withdraw from all the cities in Cyprus, and, reigning over Salamis alone, would pay to the King of the Persians a fixed tribute each year and do what was commanded, as a slave to a master. 8.3. Evagoras, although the terms were heavy, agreed to all the rest, but objected to doing what was commanded as a slave to a master, and said that he ought to be subject as a king to a king. Tiribazus not agreeing, Orontes the other general, envying the reputation of Tiribazus, sent letters secretly to Artaxerxes against Tiribazus. 8.4. He accused him, first, that, being able to take Salamis, he did not accomplish this, but received an embassy from Evagoras and conferred about a common undertaking; and likewise that he was privately making an alliance with the Lacedaemonians, being a friend of theirs; and that he had sent certain men to Delphi to ask the god about a rising; and the greatest thing, that he was making the commanders of the forces his own by goodwill, winning them over by honours and gifts and besides by promises. 8.5. The King, reading the letter and trusting the slanders, wrote to Orontes to arrest Tiribazus and send him to himself. He doing what was commanded, Tiribazus, brought up to the King and demanding to obtain a trial, was for the present given over to prison, but after this, the King having a war against the Cadusii and putting off the trial, the matters of the tribunal were dragged out. 9.1. Orontes, succeeding to the command of the forces in Cyprus, and seeing Evagoras again confidently enduring the siege, and besides this the soldiers ill enduring the arrest of Tiribazus, and on this account disobeying and abandoning the siege, Orontes, fearing the strangeness of the situation, sent to Evagoras men to confer about the settlement and to bid him conclude the peace on the terms on which he had thought fit to agree with Tiribazus. 9.2. Evagoras, then, unexpectedly escaped the capture, and concluded the peace, so as to reign over Salamis and to give the fixed tribute each year and to obey, as a king a king who commanded. The Cyprian War, then, which had lasted almost ten years, and most of the time had been occupied with preparations, having for two years at the end been continuously fought, was dissolved in this manner. 9.3. Glos, who had the admiralship of the fleet, having married the daughter of Tiribazus, being greatly afraid lest, seeming to have cooperated with Tiribazus in the affair, he should meet with punishment from the King, resolved by a new undertaking of affairs to secure his own position. Being well supplied with money and soldiers, and besides having made the trierarchs his own by goodwill, he resolved to revolt from the King. 9.4. Immediately, then, sending an embassy to Acoris the king of the Egyptians, he made an alliance against the King, and writing to the Lacedaemonians he stirred them up against the King, and promised to give a quantity of money and made the other great promises, undertaking to assist them in their affairs in Greece and to help them recover their ancestral leadership. 9.5. The Spartans had long since resolved to recover their leadership, and were now already throwing the cities into disorder and were manifest to all as enslaving the cities. Besides this, being in ill repute for seeming, in the agreement with the King, to have given up the Greeks in Asia, they repented of what had been done and sought a plausible pretext for the war against Artaxerxes. Therefore they gladly concluded the alliance with Glos. 10.1. Artaxerxes, having ended the war against the Cadusii, set up the trial for Tiribazus, and appointed three judges of those most esteemed among the Persians. About these times other judges, seeming to have judged badly, were flayed alive, and over the judicial seats the skins being stretched, upon these the judges gave judgement, having before their eyes an example of the penalty for judging badly. 10.2. The accusers, then, reading the letter sent by Orontes, said that this was sufficient for accusation; but Tiribazus, against the slander concerning Evagoras, brought forward the agreement made by Orontes that Evagoras should obey the King as a king a king, while he himself had concluded the peace so that Evagoras should obey the King as a slave a master; and concerning the oracles he said that the god gives no responses at all about death, and of this he produced as witnesses all the Greeks who were present. Concerning the friendship with the Lacedaemonians he made his defence, saying that he had made the friendship not for his own advantage but for the King's profit; and through this he showed that from the Lacedaemonians the Greeks in Asia had been taken away and given over to the King. At the end of his defence he reminded the judges of the services with which he had earlier benefited the King. 10.3. It is said that he had rendered many other services to the King, but one greatest, from which it came to pass that he was admired and became his greatest friend; for during a certain hunt, while the King was being carried on a chariot, two lions rushed upon him, and tore apart two of the horses in the four-horse team, and made their rush against the King himself; at which moment Tiribazus, appearing, both slew the lions and rescued the King from the dangers. 10.4. They say also that in the wars he excelled in valour and in counsels was so successful in aim that the King, using his recommendations, never failed. Tiribazus, having used such a defence, was acquitted of the charges by the agreed verdict of all the judges.

11.1. The King, summoning the judges one by one, asked on what grounds of justice each had acquitted the accused. The first said that he saw the charges disputed, but the benefactions acknowledged; the second said that, even granting the charges to be true, nevertheless the benefactions were greater than the offence; the third said that he did not put the benefactions to account, because Tiribazus had received from the King favours and honours many times over for them, but that, the charges themselves being considered by themselves, the accused did not appear to be liable to them. 11.2. The King praised the judges as having judged justly, and adorned Tiribazus with the greatest customary honours; while of Orontes, having condemned him as having fabricated a false accusation, he excluded him from his friends and surrounded him with the utmost dishonours. And the affairs in Asia were in this state. 12.1. In Greece, the Lacedaemonians ravaging Mantinea, throughout the summer the Mantineans continued fighting nobly against the enemy; for they seemed to excel the Arcadians in valour, and for this reason the Lacedaemonians had earlier been accustomed in their battles to have these as comrades-in-arms and the most faithful of their allies; but when winter set in, and the river by Mantinea took a great increase from the rains, the Lacedaemonians, blocking the stream of the river with great mounds, turned the river into the city and made all the nearby ground a lake. 12.2. Therefore, the houses falling, the Mantineans, struck with dismay, were compelled to surrender the city to the Lacedaemonians. They, taking it over, did no other harm to the Mantineans, but ordered them to remove into the ancient villages. Therefore they were compelled to raze their own fatherland and to remove into the villages. 13.1. At the same time as these things were being done, in Sicily Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans resolved to found cities on the Adriatic. This he did, planning to make his own the passage called the Ionian, so that he might make the voyage to Epirus safe and have cities of his own where he could anchor ships. For he was eager to sail suddenly with great forces against the regions in Epirus and to plunder the precinct at Delphi, full of much wealth. 13.2. Therefore he made an alliance with the Illyrians through Alcetas the Molossian, who happened to be an exile and staying at Syracuse. The Illyrians having a war, he sent them as allies two thousand soldiers and five hundred suits of Greek armour. The Illyrians distributed the armour to the best of their soldiers, and mingled the soldiers with their own soldiers. 13.3. Having gathered a large force, they invaded Epirus and were bringing back Alcetas to the kingdom of the Molossians. No one heeding them, at first they ravaged the country, but after this, the Molossians arraying against them, there was a fierce battle, in which the Illyrians, conquering, cut down more than fifteen thousand of the Molossians. So great a calamity having befallen the Epirotes, the Lacedaemonians, learning what had happened, sent an alliance to the Molossians, by which they put an end to the great boldness of the barbarians. 13.4. At the same time as these things were being done, the Parians, in accordance with a certain oracle, sending out a colony to the Adriatic, founded in it the island named Pharos, Dionysius the tyrant cooperating with them. For he, having sent out a colony to the Adriatic not many years before, had founded the city named Lissus. 13.5. Setting out from this, then, Dionysius . . . having leisure, constructed dockyards for two hundred triremes, and threw about the city a wall of such great magnitude that the circuit became the greatest of the Greek cities. He constructed also great gymnasia by the river Anapus, and built temples of the gods and the other things conducing to the increase and glory of a city. 14.1. The annual period having passed, at Athens Diotrephes was archon, and at Rome were appointed as consuls Lucius Valerius and Aulus Manlius, and among the Eleians the ninety-ninth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Dicon the Syracusan was victor in the stadion. In this year the Parians, having settled Pharos, allowed the barbarians who dwelt there before, being in a place exceedingly strong, to dwell unharmed, while they themselves, founding a city by the sea, walled it. 14.2. After this, the barbarians who dwelt before on the island being displeased at the presence of the Greeks, and sending for the Illyrians dwelling opposite, with many small boats they crossed over to Pharos, being above ten thousand, and plundering the Greeks slew many. But the prefect appointed at Lissus by Dionysius, having many triremes, sailed against the small boats of the Illyrians, and sinking some and mastering others, slew of the barbarians more than five thousand, and took alive about two thousand. 14.3. Dionysius, being in want of money, campaigned against Tyrrhenia, having sixty triremes, putting forward as a pretext the suppression of pirates, but in truth to plunder a holy temple, full of many dedications, set up in the harbour of the city Agylla in Tyrrhenia; the harbour was named Pyrgi. 14.4. Sailing in by night and disembarking his force, falling upon them at daybreak he mastered his undertaking; for there being few guards in the place, overpowering them he plundered the temple and gathered not less than a thousand talents. The Agyllaeans coming to the rescue, he both conquered them in battle and, taking many prisoners and plundering the country, returned to Syracuse. Selling the spoils, he gathered not less than five hundred talents. Being well supplied with money, he hired a multitude of soldiers of every kind, and constituting a considerable force was manifestly about to make war on the Carthaginians. These things, then, were done in this year.

15.1. In the archonship at Athens of Phanostratus the Romans appointed in place of the consuls four military tribunes, Lucius Lucretius, Sentius Sulpicius, Lucius Aemilius, Lucius Furius. In this year Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans, having prepared to make war on the Carthaginians, sought to take a plausible pretext for the war. Seeing, then, that the cities ranged under the Carthaginians were favourably disposed toward revolt, he received those who wished to revolt, and concluding an alliance with them dealt fairly with them. 15.2. The Carthaginians at first, sending envoys to the ruler, demanded back the cities, but when he paid no heed it came to pass that this was the beginning of the war. The Carthaginians, then, making an alliance with the Italiotes, took up the war in common against the tyrant; and prudently foreseeing the magnitude of the war, they both enrolled as soldiers the fit men of their citizens and, having provided a quantity of money, hired great foreign forces. Appointing as general Mago the king, they transported many myriads of soldiers into Sicily and Italy, wishing to fight it out from both sides. 15.3. Dionysius also, dividing his forces, with one part contended against the Italiotes and with the other against the Phoenicians. Many partial battles took place for the armies, and small and continual skirmishes, in which no noteworthy deed was accomplished; but two great and famous engagements occurred. In the first, Dionysius, fighting wonderfully, had the advantage near the place called Cabala, and slew more than ten thousand of the barbarians, and took alive not fewer than five thousand; and the rest of the multitude he forced to flee to a certain strong and wholly waterless hill. Mago too, their king, fell, fighting brilliantly. 15.4. The Phoenicians, struck with dismay at the magnitude of the calamity, immediately sent an embassy about a settlement. Dionysius declared that there was for them one settlement only, if they would withdraw from the cities in Sicily and pay the money expended during the war. 16.1. The answer seeming to be heavy and arrogant, the Carthaginians, with their usual cunning, outgeneralled Dionysius. Pretending to be content with the agreements, they said that they themselves were not masters of the surrender of the cities, but in order that they might confer with the magistrates about these things, they asked Dionysius to make a few days' truce. 16.2. The ruler agreeing, and the truce being made, Dionysius was overjoyed, as about immediately to receive all Sicily, while the Carthaginians buried Mago the king magnificently, and in his place appointed as general his son, who was wholly young, but full of spirit and distinguished in valour. This man, throughout the whole time of the truce, continued drawing up and exercising the force, and through the training in labours and the exhortation of speeches and exercise in arms made the army obedient and capable. 16.3. When the time of the agreement had passed, both sides, drawing up their forces, went down eagerly to battle. A fierce engagement taking place near the place called Cronium, the divinity by an exchange corrected the defeat of the Carthaginians with victory; for those who had conquered before, being boastful because of their previous success, were unexpectedly worsted, while those who had fallen in their hopes because of the defeat carried off an unexpected and great success. 17.1. For Leptines, stationed on the one wing and distinguished in valour, fighting heroically and slaying many of the Carthaginians, ended his life conspicuously; and when he had fallen, the Phoenicians, taking courage and forcing those arrayed against them, routed them. 17.2. Dionysius at first, having the chosen men drawn up with him, had the advantage over those arrayed against him; but when the death of Leptines became known and the other wing had been crushed, the men of Dionysius were struck with dismay and rushed to flight. 17.3. A complete rout taking place, the Carthaginians, pursuing the more eagerly, ordered one another to take no one alive; therefore, all who were overtaken being slain, every nearby place was filled with corpses. 17.4. So great was the slaughter, the Phoenicians bearing malice, that the slain of the Sicilians were found to be more than fourteen thousand. The survivors, fleeing to the camp, were saved when night came on. The Carthaginians, having conquered in a great engagement, withdrew to Panormus. 17.5. Bearing their success humanely, they sent envoys, giving Dionysius leave to end the war. The tyrant gladly receiving the words, a settlement was made, so that both sides should have what they had formerly been masters of; but as a special acquisition the Carthaginians took the city and territory of the Selinuntians and of the Acragantine territory as far as the river called Halycus. And Dionysius paid the Carthaginians a thousand talents. And the affairs in Sicily were in this state.

18.1. In Asia Glos, who had been admiral of the Persians in the Cyprian War, being a rebel from the King and having called upon both the Lacedaemonians and the king of the Egyptians to the war against the Persians, was treacherously slain by certain men and did not accomplish his purpose. After his death Tachos, succeeding to his undertakings, gathered a force about himself, and founded a city near the sea on a certain cliff, named Leuce, which had a holy temple of Apollo. 18.2. A little while later, he having died, the Clazomenians and Cymaeans disputed over this city. At first the cities attempted to decide by war, but after this, someone proposing to ask the god which of the cities he judged ought to be mistress of Leuce, the Pythia decided that it should be whichever first sacrificed at Leuce; and that they should set out from their own city at sunrise on the day which both should by agreement fix. 18.3. The day having been appointed, the Cymaeans supposed that they had the advantage because their city lay nearer; but the Clazomenians, being a greater distance off, contrived something of this sort for the victory: choosing by lot colonists from among themselves, they founded a city near Leuce, from which, setting out at sunrise, they forestalled the Cymaeans in completing the sacrifice. 18.4. By this device, having become masters of Leuce, they established the holding of an eponymous festival each year, naming the festival Prophthaseia (the Forestalling). These things being done, the risings in Asia were of themselves dissolved. 19.1. The Lacedaemonians, after the death of Glos and Tachos, gave up the affairs in Asia, and arranging the affairs in Greece, and bringing over some of the cities by persuasion, and others by force through the return of exiles mastering them, were now openly transferring to themselves the leadership of Greece, contrary to the common treaties made under Antalcidas with the cooperation of the King of the Persians. 19.2. In Macedonia, Amyntas the king, being defeated by the Illyrians and despairing of his rule, and besides this having given to the people of the Olynthians much of the bordering country because of his despair of his own dominion, at first the people of the Olynthians received the revenues from the country given; but after this, the King unexpectedly recovering himself and regaining his whole rule, the Olynthians, being asked back for the country, were not willing to give it up. 19.3. Therefore Amyntas both constituted his own force and, making the Lacedaemonians allies, persuaded them to send out a general and a considerable force against the Olynthians. The Lacedaemonians, deciding to hold to the regions in Thrace, enrolled soldiers both from the citizens and from the allies, in all above ten thousand; and handing over the force to Phoebidas the Spartan, they ordered him to ally himself with Amyntas and with him to make war on the Olynthians. Sending another force against the Phliasians and conquering them in battle, they compelled the Phliasians to submit to the Lacedaemonians. 19.4. About this time the kings of the Lacedaemonians differed with one another in their inclinations. For Agesipolis, being peaceful and just, and besides distinguished in understanding, said that they ought to abide by their oaths and not, contrary to the common treaties, enslave the Greeks; for he declared that Sparta was in ill repute, having given over to the Persians the Greeks in Asia, while herself arranging the cities in Greece, after swearing in the common treaties to keep them independent. But Agesilaus, being by nature energetic, was warlike and clung to the dominion of the Greeks.

20.1. In the archonship at Athens of Evander the Romans appointed in place of the consuls six military tribunes, Quintus Sulpicius, Gaius Fabius, Quintus Servilius, Publius Cornelius. In this year the Lacedaemonians seized the Cadmeia in Thebes for some such causes as these. Seeing Boeotia to have a multitude of cities, and the men dwelling in it to be distinguished in valour, and besides Thebes to have an ancient dignity and in sum to be like a citadel of Boeotia, they were on their guard lest, if ever a fit occasion appeared, it should lay claim to the leadership; 20.2. therefore the Spartans gave secret orders to their commanders that, if ever they should get an opportunity, they should seize the Cadmeia. Such an order having been given, Phoebidas the Spartan, appointed to a command and leading a force against the Olynthians, seized the Cadmeia. The Thebans being indignant and running together with arms, joining battle with them and conquering, he banished three hundred of the most notable of the Thebans, and striking dismay into the rest and establishing a strong garrison, departed to his own affairs. The Lacedaemonians, being in ill repute among the Greeks because of this deed, fined Phoebidas a sum of money, but did not lead the garrison out of Thebes; 20.3. the Thebans, then, in this manner losing their independence, were compelled to submit to the Lacedaemonians. The Olynthians being at war with Amyntas the king of the Macedonians, the Lacedaemonians removed Phoebidas from the command and appointed as general Eudamidas the brother of Phoebidas. Giving him three thousand hoplites, they sent him out to fight the war against the Olynthians. 21.1. He, invading the country of the Olynthians, in common with Amyntas fought the war against the Olynthians. Then the Olynthians, having gathered a considerable force, had the advantage in the battles, having more soldiers than the enemy; but the Lacedaemonians, providing a considerable force, appointed as general over it Teleutias. This man was the brother of Agesilaus the king, and was admired for his virtue among the citizens. 21.2. Setting out, then, with a force from the Peloponnese and coming near the Olynthians, he took over the soldiers under Eudamidas. Being a match for battle, at first he ravaged the country of the Olynthians, and gathering a quantity of booty distributed it to the soldiers. The Olynthians with their allies arraying in full force, he joined battle. And at first, the contest being even, they parted; but after this, a fierce battle taking place, Teleutias himself fell, fighting brilliantly, and of the Lacedaemonians more than twelve hundred were slain. 21.3. So great a success having come to the Olynthians, the Lacedaemonians, wishing to correct the reverse that had occurred, prepared to send out larger forces, while the Olynthians, thinking that the Spartans would come with greater forces and that the war would be long, made considerable preparations of grain and took on soldiers from the allies. 22.1. In the archonship at Athens of Demophilus the Romans appointed in place of the consuls military tribunes, Publius Cornelius, Lucius Verginius, Lucius Papirius, Marcus Furius, Valerius, Aulus Manlius, Lucius and Postumius. 22.2. In this year the Lacedaemonians, providing as general Agesipolis the king, and giving him a sufficient force, voted to make war on the Olynthians. He, coming to the country of the Olynthians and taking over the soldiers already in the camp, fought the war against the natives. The Olynthians constituted no great battle in this year, but continued making skirmishes and brief encounters, struck with dismay at the force with the king.

23.1. The annual period having passed, at Athens the archon was Pytheas, and at Rome six military tribunes were appointed in place of the consuls, Titus Quinctius, Lucius Servilius, Lucius Julius, Aquillius, Lucius Lucretius, Servius Sulpicius, and among the Eleians the hundredth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Dionysodorus the Tarentine was victor in the stadion. 23.2. In this year Agesipolis the king of the Lacedaemonians died of disease, having reigned fourteen years; and his rule was succeeded by Cleombrotus his brother, who reigned nine years. The Lacedaemonians, appointing Polybiades as general, sent him out to the war against the Olynthians. 23.3. He, taking over the forces and managing the war both vigorously and skilfully, made many advances. Ever succeeding more and conquering in several battles, he shut up the Olynthians in a siege; and at last, striking dismay into the enemy, he ordered them to submit to the Lacedaemonians. The Olynthians being enrolled in the alliance of the Spartans, many also of the other cities were eager to be enrolled under the leadership of the Lacedaemonians. Therefore at these times the Lacedaemonians had the greatest strength, and held the leadership of Greece both by land and by sea. 23.4. For the Thebans were under garrison, and the Corinthians and Argives, because of their previous wars, were humbled, and the Athenians, because of the cleruchies imposed on those they had subdued, were in ill repute among the Greeks; while the Lacedaemonians took much forethought both for their populousness and for their practice in arms, and were fearsome to all because of the power of their leadership. 23.5. Therefore the greatest of the rulers of that time, I mean the King of the Persians and Dionysius the ruler of Sicily, courted the leadership of the Spartans and were eager to conclude an alliance with them. 24.1. In the archonship at Athens of Nicon the Romans appointed six military tribunes in place of the consuls, Lucius Papirius, Gaius Servilius, Lucius Quinctius, Lucius Cornelius, Lucius Valerius, Aulus Manlius. In this year the Carthaginians, campaigning into Italy, restored to the Hipponiatae, who had been driven from their fatherland, their city, and gathering together all who had fled, took much care of them. 24.2. After this, a pestilential disease having befallen the inhabitants of Carthage, and the disease having great increase, many of the Carthaginians perished, and they were in danger of losing their leadership; for both the Libyans, despising them, revolted, and the inhabitants of Sardinia, thinking they had an opportunity against the Carthaginians, revolted from them and, conspiring together, attacked the Carthaginians. 24.3. There occurred about the same time a god-sent misfortune in Carthage. For disturbances and fears and panic tumults occurred continually throughout the city, strange and unaccountable, and many rushed out of their houses with arms, as though enemies had broken into the city, and fighting against one another as enemies, some they slew, some they wounded. At last, having propitiated the divinity with sacrifices and with difficulty being rid of their ills, they quickly both subdued the Libyans and recovered the island.

25.1. In the archonship at Athens of Nausinicus the Romans appointed four military tribunes in place of the consuls, Marcus Cornelius and Quintus Servilius, Marcus Furius and Lucius Quinctius. In this year the so-called Boeotian War arose for the Lacedaemonians against the Boeotians for some such causes as these. The Lacedaemonians garrisoning the Cadmeia unjustly and having banished many of the notable men, the exiles banded together, and with the cooperation of the Athenians returned to their fatherland by night. 25.2. And first they slew in their own houses those who favoured the Lacedaemonians, catching them still asleep; then, calling the citizens to freedom, they had as cooperators all the Thebans. Quickly the multitude running together with arms, at daybreak they attempted to besiege the Cadmeia. 25.3. The Lacedaemonians garrisoning the citadel, being with their allies not fewer than fifteen hundred, sent to Sparta those who should declare the rising of the Thebans and call for help as quickly as possible, while they themselves, defending from commanding positions against the besiegers, slew many and wounded not a few. 25.4. The Thebans, expecting that a great force would come from Greece for the Lacedaemonians, sent envoys to Athens, reminding them that they too had helped restore the people of the Athenians at the time when they were enslaved by the Thirty Tyrants, and asking them to help in full force and, before the arrival of the Lacedaemonians, to help take the Cadmeia. 26.1. The people of the Athenians, having heard the envoys, voted at once to send out as great a force as possible to free Thebes, both rendering the thanks for the benefaction and at the same time wishing to make the Boeotians their own and to have strong fellow-fighters against the supremacy of the Lacedaemonians; for this nation, both in the multitude of its men and in valour in war, seemed to fall behind none of the Greek peoples. 26.2. At last Demophon, appointed general, and at once enrolling five thousand hoplites and five hundred horse, on the next day led the force out of the city at daybreak, and hastened at a run, eager to forestall the Lacedaemonians; and the people none the less prepared to campaign in full force into Boeotia, if there should be need. 26.3. Demophon, using short roads, unexpectedly appeared to the Thebans. Likewise also from the other cities in Boeotia, many soldiers running together, quickly a great force was gathered for the Thebans. 26.4. For hoplites came together not fewer than twelve thousand, and horsemen more than two thousand. All eagerly setting about the siege, dividing the multitude, they made the assaults in relays, persevering in the dangers continually both day and night. 27.1. Those garrisoning the Cadmeia, exhorted by their commanders, vigorously defended themselves against the enemy, hoping that the Lacedaemonians would shortly come with a great force. So long, then, as they had sufficient food, they held out against the dangers, and slew and wounded many of the besiegers, having as their helper the strength of the citadel; but when the scarcity of necessaries grew acute, and the Lacedaemonians, being occupied with preparations, delayed, they fell into faction with one another. 27.2. For the Lacedaemonians thought they ought to hold out to the death, but those who had campaigned from the allied cities, being many times more, declared for surrendering the Cadmeia; and those from Sparta itself, being few, were compelled to give up the citadel. Therefore these, released under truce by agreement, departed to the Peloponnese; 27.3. but the Lacedaemonians, advancing with considerable forces against Thebes, and being a little late for the occasion, had their undertaking fruitless. The commanders of the garrison, being three, they brought to trial, and condemned two to death, while the third they fined so great a sum of money that his property could not pay so much. 27.4. After this the Athenians returned to their fatherland, and the Thebans, besieging Thespiae, had their undertaking fruitless. At the same time as these things were being done, the Romans sent five hundred colonists, free of taxes, to Sardinia.

28.1. In the archonship at Athens of Calleas the Romans appointed in place of the consuls four military tribunes, Lucius Papirius, Marcus Publius, Titus Cornelius, Quintus Lucius. In this year, the Lacedaemonians having stumbled about Thebes, the Boeotians, taking courage, banded together, and making a common alliance constituted a considerable force, expecting that the Lacedaemonians would come with great forces into Boeotia. 28.2. The Athenians sent the most notable of their men as envoys to the cities ranged under the Lacedaemonians, calling on them to hold to the common freedom. For the Lacedaemonians, because of the magnitude of their power, ruled their subjects contemptuously and harshly; therefore many of those ranged under them inclined toward the Athenians. 28.3. First to obey the call to revolt were the Chians and Byzantines, and after these the Rhodians and Mitylenaeans and certain others of the islanders; the impulse of the Greeks ever increasing, many cities attached themselves to the Athenians. The people, lifted up by the goodwill of the cities, constituted a common council of all the allies, and appointed councillors from each city. 28.4. It was arranged by common consent that the council should meet at Athens, that a city, equally great and small, should have authority over a single vote, that all should be independent, using the Athenians as leaders. The Lacedaemonians, seeing the impulse of the cities toward revolt to be uncontrollable, nevertheless by embassies and humane speeches, and besides by beneficent promises, were ambitious to correct the estrangement of the men. 28.5. Likewise they took much thought also for their preparation for the war, expecting that the Boeotian War would be great and long for them, the Athenians and the other Greeks who shared in the council being allied with the Thebans. 29.1. At the same time as these things were being done, Acoris the king of the Egyptians, being ill disposed toward the King of the Persians, gathered considerable foreign forces; for, offering great wages to those who obeyed and benefiting many, he quickly had many of the Greeks obeying for the campaign. 29.2. Not having a general of sufficient worth, he sent for Chabrias the Athenian, a man distinguished both in prudence and in generalship's understanding, and who had won a great reputation for virtue. He, then, without the consent of the people, having accepted the command, led the forces in Egypt, and with much eagerness prepared to make war on the Persians. 29.3. Pharnabazus, designated by the King as general over the Persian force, made great preparations of the things useful for the war; and he sent envoys to the Athenians, accusing Chabrias, that, leading the Egyptians, he was estranging the King's goodwill from the people, and asking them to give him Iphicrates as general. 29.4. The Athenians, eager to bring the King of the Persians into goodwill and to make Pharnabazus their own, quickly both sent for Chabrias from Egypt and sent out Iphicrates as general to ally himself with the Persians. 29.5. The Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, having made a treaty in the times above, it came to pass that the peace remained until these times. After this, Sphodriades the Spartan being appointed to a command, and being by nature excitable and rash, Cleombrotus the king of the Lacedaemonians persuaded him, without the consent of the ephors, to seize the Piraeus. 29.6. Sphodriades, having more than ten thousand soldiers, attempted by night to seize the Piraeus; but becoming visible to the Athenians and failing of his undertaking, he returned fruitless. Being accused in the council of the Spartans, and having the kings as supporters, he was unjustly acquitted. 29.7. Therefore the Athenians, taking it ill at what had happened, voted that the treaty had been broken by the Lacedaemonians. Deciding to make war on them, they chose three generals, the most notable of the citizens, Timotheus and Chabrias and Callistratus. They voted to enroll as soldiers twenty thousand hoplites and five hundred horse, and to man two hundred ships. They also took the Thebans into the common council on equal terms in all things. 29.8. They voted also to restore the cleruchies that had been made to those who had earlier been masters, and they passed a law that none of the Athenians should farm outside Attica. Through this humanity, having recovered the goodwill among the Greeks, they made their own leadership stronger.

30.1. Many also of the other cities for the aforesaid reason were prompted to incline toward the Athenians, and first and most eagerly those dwelling in Euboea allied themselves, except Hestiaea; for this city, having been greatly benefited by the Lacedaemonians, but terribly warred upon by the Athenians, reasonably kept its enmity toward the Athenians undissolved, and toward the Spartans preserved its faith firm. 30.2. Nevertheless, seventy cities came over into alliance with the Athenians and shared on equal terms in the common council; therefore, the power of the Athenians ever increasing more and that of the Lacedaemonians being humbled, it came to pass that the strength of the cities became evenly matched. The Athenians, their affairs proceeding according to their mind, sent a force into Euboea to guard the allies and to subdue their opponents. 30.3. In Euboea, a little before these times, a certain man named Neogenes, with Jason of Pherae, having collected soldiers, seized the citadel of the Hestiaeans, and declared himself tyrant of this country and of the city of the Oreitae. He ruling violently and arrogantly, the Lacedaemonians sent Theripides against him. 30.4. He at first attempted by words to make the tyrant withdraw from the citadel; but when he paid no heed, calling the natives to freedom he took the place by siege and restored to the Oreitae their freedom; for which reason those dwelling in the country called the Hestiaeotid were favourably disposed toward the Spartans, and firmly kept the friendship. 30.5. Chabrias, leading the force sent out by the Athenians, ravaged the Hestiaeotid country, and the place called Metropolis, lying on a certain strong hill, he walled and left in it a garrison, while he himself, sailing against the Cyclades islands, brought over Peparethos and Sciathos and certain others that were ranged under the Lacedaemonians. 31.1. The Lacedaemonians, seeing the impulse of the allies toward revolt to be uncontrollable, ceased from their former harshness and dealt humanely with the cities. By such associations and benefactions they made all the allies better disposed. Seeing the war increasing and requiring much attention, they made the other preparations zealously and worked out the arrangement and division of the soldiers and the public services rather elaborately. 31.2. For the cities and the soldiers enrolled for the war they divided into ten parts. Of these the Lacedaemonians held the first part, the Arcadians the second and third, the Eleians the fourth, the Achaeans the fifth; the Corinthians and Megarians filled the sixth, the Sicyonians and Phliasians and those dwelling in the place called Acte the seventh, the Acarnanians the eighth, the Phocians and Locrians the ninth, and the Olynthians and the allies dwelling in Thrace the last. For them the hoplite was reckoned as against two light-armed, and the horseman as equal to four hoplites. 31.3. Such being the arrangement, the army was led by Agesilaus the king; he was renowned for valour and generalship's understanding and had been almost unconquered in the times above. For both in the other wars he was admired, and at the time when the Lacedaemonians made war on the Persians, having drawn up and conquered a force many times larger, he went over much of Asia, mastering the open country, and finally, had not the Spartans summoned him for certain political needs, he would almost have brought the whole kingdom of the Persians into the utmost dangers. 31.4. For this man was energetic, and with much understanding bold and using daring deeds. Therefore at that time the Spartans, seeing the magnitude of the war requiring a considerable leader, appointed this man leader of the whole war. 32.1. Agesilaus, leading forward the force, came into Boeotia, having in all soldiers more than eighteen thousand, of whom were five divisions of the Lacedaemonians; and the division is filled by five hundred men. The company called the Sciritae among the Spartans is not drawn up with the others, but having its own constitution stands with the king, and comes to the aid of whatever parts are at any time hard pressed; being composed of chosen men, it makes great turns in the engagements and is for the most part the cause of the victory. Agesilaus had fifteen hundred horse. 32.2. He, then, coming to the city Thespiae, garrisoned by the Lacedaemonians, encamped near it, and refreshed the soldiers for some days from their hardship. The Athenians, learning of the presence of the Lacedaemonians in Boeotia, immediately came to the aid of Thebes, having five thousand foot and two hundred horse. 32.3. These forces being gathered into one place, the Thebans seized a certain oblong hill, distant twenty stades from the city, and making the difficult ground their defence, awaited the onset of the enemy; for, struck with dismay at the reputation of Agesilaus, they were on their guard against an even contest on the plains. 32.4. Agesilaus, leading his force in order against the Boeotians, when he drew near the enemy, at first sent the light-armed against his opponents, trying how they stood toward battle. The Thebans easily beating these off from commanding positions, he led the whole force in order against them strikingly. 32.5. Chabrias the Athenian, leading the mercenaries, ordered the soldiers to receive the enemy contemptuously and at the same time in order, and, leaning their shields against the knee with spear upright, to remain. 32.6. They doing what was commanded as if at a single word of command, Agesilaus, marvelling at both the good order of the enemy and the contempt, did not decide to force his way against commanding positions and to compel his opponents, being brave men, to become valiant for hand-to-hand danger, but having made trial that they would dare to fight it out for the victory when forced, he challenged them in the plain. The Thebans not coming down, he led away the phalanx of foot, and sending out the cavalry and the light-armed of the companies he ravaged the country without fear and became master of much booty.

33.1. The Spartan counsellors who were with Agesilaus and those holding the commands marvelled how Agesilaus, seeming to be energetic and having a larger and more powerful force, did not fight it out with the enemy. To them Agesilaus answered that now the Lacedaemonians had conquered without danger; for, the country being ravaged, the Boeotians had not dared to come to its aid; but if, the enemy themselves having yielded the victory, he had forced the enemy to face the danger, perhaps, through the unaccountableness of fortune, the Lacedaemonians might even have stumbled in the contest. 33.2. At that time, then, by this answer he seemed to have guessed moderately what might come to pass; but later, through the outcomes, he seemed to have spoken not a human declaration, but a kind of divine oracle. For the Lacedaemonians, campaigning with a great force against the Thebans and compelling them to fight for their freedom, fell into a great calamity. 33.3. For first at Leuctra, being defeated, they lost many of their citizens, among whom their king Cleombrotus also fell; and after this, fighting at Mantinea, they were utterly worsted and lost their leadership beyond hope. For fortune is good at unexpectedly tripping up the high-minded and teaching them to hope for nothing too greatly. Agesilaus, at any rate, prudently being content with the first advantage, kept his force unharmed. 33.4. After this, Agesilaus with his force returned to the Peloponnese, while the Thebans, saved through the generalship of Chabrias, marvelled at the man's quickness of wit in the stratagem. Chabrias, although many noble things had been done by him in war, prided himself most on this stratagem, and set up the statues given him by the people in this posture. 33.5. The Thebans, after the departure of Agesilaus, campaigning against Thespiae, slew the advance guard, being two hundred men, and making continual assaults on the city, but accomplishing nothing noteworthy, led the force back to Thebes. 33.6. Phoebidas the Lacedaemonian, having a considerable garrison in Thespiae, pouring out of the city and rashly attacking the withdrawing Thebans, lost more than five hundred of his soldiers, while he himself, fighting brilliantly and falling in with many wounds in front, ended his life heroically. 34.1. Not long afterward, the Lacedaemonians again campaigning with the same force against Thebes, the Thebans, seizing certain other difficult positions, prevented the enemy from plundering the country, but did not dare to array against the whole force in the plains. 34.2. Agesilaus pressing on, they came down little by little to the contest. A battle taking place, fierce for a long time, at first the men of Agesilaus had the advantage, but after this, the Thebans from the city pouring out in full force, Agesilaus, seeing the multitude of those streaming in, recalled the soldiers from the battle by the trumpet. The Thebans, thinking they were then for the first time not inferior to the Lacedaemonians, both set up a trophy and for the rest took courage against the force of the Spartans. 34.3. The affairs concerning the infantry forces, then, had such an end; and of the naval forces about the same time there occurred a great sea-battle between Naxos and Paros for some such causes as these. Pollis the admiral of the Lacedaemonians, learning that a quantity of grain was being conveyed in merchant-ships to the Athenians, lay in wait and watched for the arrival of the conveyed provisions, planning to attack the merchant-ships. The people of the Athenians, learning this, sent out a fleet to guard the grain-convoy, which also brought the conveyed provisions safe to the Piraeus. 34.4. After this, Chabrias the admiral of the Athenians, sailing with the whole fleet against Naxos, constituted a siege. Bringing up engines to the walls and through these shaking the walls, he brought zeal to master the city by force. At the same time as these things were being done, Pollis the admiral of the Lacedaemonians sailed up to help the Naxians. A rivalry arising, both sides went down to a sea-battle, and drawing up their ships sailed against one another. 34.5. Pollis had sixty-five triremes, and Chabrias eighty-three. The ships sailing against one another, Pollis, leading the right wing, first attacked the triremes arrayed against him on the left wing, of which Cedon the Athenian was leader; fighting brilliantly, he both destroyed Cedon himself and sank his ship; and likewise engaging the others and breaking them up with his rams, some he destroyed, others he forced to flee. Seeing this, Chabrias, sending a part of the ships about him, helped those who were hard pressed and corrected the defeat of his own, while he himself, having the strongest part of the fleet and fighting nobly, destroyed many triremes and took not a few prisoners. 35.1. Being upon his advantage, and having forced all the enemy's ships to flee, he wholly abstained from the pursuit; for remembering the sea-battle at Arginusae, in which the people, in return for a great benefaction, surrounded the victorious generals with death, charging them that they did not bury those who had died in the sea-battle, he was on his guard lest, a like situation arising, he should risk suffering the like. Therefore, desisting from the pursuit, he picked up his citizens who were swimming, and those still living he saved, and those who had died he buried. Had he not been engaged in this care, he would easily have destroyed the whole fleet of the enemy. 35.2. In the sea-battle, of the Athenians eighteen triremes were destroyed, and of the Lacedaemonians twenty-four were destroyed, and eight were taken with all their crews. Chabrias, then, having conquered in a notable sea-battle, sailed with much booty to the Piraeus, and met with great acceptance among the citizens. For after the Peloponnesian War the Athenians won this first sea-battle; for the one off Cnidus they did not fight on their own, but, using the royal fleet, had the advantage. 35.3. At the same time as these things were being done, in Italy at Rome Marcus Manlius, attempting a tyranny and being overcome, was slain.

36.1. In the archonship at Athens of Charisander the Romans appointed in place of the consuls four military tribunes, Servius Sulpicius, Lucius Papirius, Titus Quinctius, and the Eleians celebrated the hundred-and-first Olympiad, in which Damon the Thurian was victor in the stadion. In this year in Thrace the Triballi, hard pressed by famine, made a campaign in full force against the country beyond their borders, and provided themselves food from foreign land. 36.2. Being more than thirty thousand, they overran the neighbouring Thrace and ravaged the country of the Abderites without fear; and having gained possession of much booty, they were making their return contemptuously and in disorder. The Abderites, campaigning in full force against them as they were making their return scattered and in disorder, slew more than two thousand. 36.3. The barbarians, provoked at what had happened, and wishing to take vengeance on the Abderites, again invaded their country. Those who had won before, lifted up by their advantage, and the neighbouring Thracians having sent them an alliance, arrayed against the barbarians. 36.4. A fierce battle taking place, and the Thracians suddenly changing sides, the Abderites, left alone and surrounded by the multitude of the barbarians, were almost all of those who had shared in the battle cut down. So great a calamity having befallen the Abderites, and they being about to be besieged, Chabrias the Athenian, appearing with a force, rescued the Abderites from the dangers, and drove the barbarians out of the country, and leaving in the city a considerable garrison was himself treacherously slain by certain men. 36.5. Timotheus, taking over the admiralship and sailing to Cephallenia, both brought over the cities in it and likewise persuaded those in Acarnania to incline toward the Athenians. Making Alcetas the king of the Molossians a friend, and in general making his own the lands of the cities about those regions, he conquered the Lacedaemonians in a sea-battle off Leucas. 36.6. All these things he accomplished quickly and easily, persuading by the power of his speech and conquering by valour and generalship. Therefore not only among the citizens but also among the other Greeks he met with great acceptance. And the affairs concerning Timotheus were in this state. 37.1. At the same time as these things were being done, the Thebans campaigned against Orchomenus with five hundred chosen men, and accomplished a deed worthy of memory; for the Lacedaemonians garrisoning Orchomenus with many soldiers, and these arraying against the Thebans, a fierce battle took place, in which the Thebans, engaging against twice their number, conquered the Lacedaemonians. For never had it happened in the times above that this came to pass, but it seemed satisfactory for many to conquer few. 37.2. Therefore the Thebans were filled with spirit, and held their valour more renowned, and became manifestly disposed to dispute the leadership of the Greeks. 37.3. Of the historians, Hermeias of Methymna closed his work on Sicilian affairs at this year, having written ten books, or, as some divide them, twelve.

38.1. In the archonship at Athens of Hippodamus the Romans appointed four military tribunes in place of the consuls, Lucius Valerius, Lucius Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Lucretius. In this year Artaxerxes the King of the Persians, being about to make war on the Egyptians and eager to constitute a considerable foreign force, resolved to settle the wars in Greece; for thus he most hoped that the Greeks, being released from their own wars, would be more ready for the enlistments. Therefore he sent envoys to Greece to call upon the cities to conclude a common peace. 38.2. The Greeks gladly receiving the words, because they were worn down by the continuity of the wars, all concluded the peace, so that all the cities should be independent and ungarrisoned. And the Greeks appointed commissioners of withdrawal, who, going to each city, led out all the garrisons. 38.3. Only the Thebans not consenting that the treaties should be made by city, but ranging all Boeotia under the Theban confederacy, and the Athenians objecting most ambitiously, Callistratus the demagogue setting forth the speech, while on behalf of the Thebans Epaminondas set forth a speech wonderfully in the common council, the treaties were concluded with all the other Greeks in agreement, but the Thebans alone were judged excluded from the treaty, and Epaminondas, through his own virtue inspiring spirit in the citizens, they took courage to oppose the decrees of all. 38.4. For the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, throughout being ambitious over the leadership, yielded to one another, the one being judged worthy of the rule by land, the other of that by sea. Therefore they bore ill the leadership being referred to a third party, and detached the cities in Boeotia from the Theban confederacy. 39.1. The Thebans, distinguished both in the strength of their bodies and in their might, and having conquered the Lacedaemonians in many battles, were high-minded in spirit and disputed the leadership by land. They were not deceived of their hope, for the aforesaid reasons and because they had more good leaders and generals during the times in question. 39.2. The most notable were Pelopidas and Gorgidas and Epaminondas; for this man surpassed far not only his own countrymen but all the Greeks in valour and generalship's understanding. For he had shared to a great extent in all education, and most of all in Pythagorean philosophy; and besides this, being endowed with natural advantages, reasonably he accomplished the most notable deeds. Therefore, even when compelled with few citizen-soldiers to contend against all the forces of the Lacedaemonians and their allies, he so far surpassed the unconquered soldiers that he slew Cleombrotus the king of the Spartans, and almost utterly cut down the multitude of those arrayed against him.

39.3. And he accomplished such great things unexpectedly because of the quickness of wit and the virtue that had come to him from education. But concerning these things we shall make clearer a little later in the parts set forth, and now we shall turn to the continuous narrative of our history. 40.1. For after the independence granted to the peoples, the cities fell into great disturbances and factions, and most of all those in the Peloponnese. For, having used oligarchic constitutions, and using the licences of democracy without good experience, they banished many of the good men and, casting on them sycophantic charges, condemned them. Therefore, falling into factions, they made banishments and confiscations of properties, and most of all against those who had presided over their fatherlands during the leadership of the Lacedaemonians. 40.2. For in those times those men having dealt dictatorially with the citizens, later the democratic crowd, recovering its freedom, bore malice. First the exiles of the Phialeans, banding together, seized the place called Heraea, a strong stronghold. Setting out from this, they burst into Phialeia, and the Dionysia happening to be on, falling unexpectedly upon those sitting in the theatre, and slaughtering many, and persuading not a few to share their desperation, they withdrew to Sparta. 40.3. The exiles of Corinth, many staying among the Argives, attempted to return; received into the city by certain kinsmen and friends, being slandered they became surrounded; and being about to be seized, and fearing the outrage from capture, they killed one another. The Corinthians, charging many of the citizens with having shared in the attempt with the exiles, slew some and banished others. 40.4. In the city of the Megarians some, attempting to change the constitution and being overcome by the people, were slain, many, and not a few were driven out. Likewise also among the Sicyonians some, attempting to revolt and failing, were slain. 40.5. Among the Phliasians, many being banished, and having seized a strong stronghold in the country and gathered a multitude of mercenaries, there was a battle against those from the city, and the exiles conquering, of the Phliasians above three hundred were slain. Later, the guards betraying the exiles, the Phliasians, mastering the exiles, slew more than six hundred, and casting the rest out of the country forced them to flee to Argos. The cities in the Peloponnese, then, were in such misfortunes. 41.1. In the archonship at Athens of Socratides the Romans appointed in place of the consuls four military tribunes, Quintus Servilius, Servius Cornelius, and besides Spurius Papirius. In this year Artaxerxes the King campaigned against the Egyptians who had revolted from the Persians. The forces were led by Pharnabazus of the barbarian forces, and Iphicrates the Athenian of the mercenaries, who were twenty thousand. This man, summoned to the command by the King, was appointed because of his virtue in generalship. 41.2. Pharnabazus having spent several years over the preparations, Iphicrates, seeing him to be clever in speaking but sluggish in action, used frankness toward him, saying that he marvelled how in words he was sharp, but in deeds slow. Pharnabazus answered that of words he himself was master, but of deeds the King. 41.3. The Persian force being gathered at the city Ace, there were numbered of the barbarians twenty myriads, of whom Pharnabazus was leader; and of the mercenary Greeks Iphicrates led twenty thousand. And there were numbered ships, three hundred triremes and two hundred thirty-oared galleys; and of those conveying the provisions and the rest of the supply there was a great number. 41.4. The summer beginning, the King's generals set out with the whole force, and the fleet sailing along, advanced toward Egypt. When they came near the Nile, they found the Egyptians manifestly prepared for the war. 41.5. For Pharnabazus made the campaign slow and had given the enemy much time for preparation. For in general the generals of the Persians, not being masters of the whole, refer everything to the King and wait for the answers about each thing.

42.1. The king of the Egyptians, Nectanebis, learned the magnitude of the Persian forces, but was confident most of all in the strength of the country, Egypt being wholly hard to approach, and then also because all the entrances, both those from land and those from sea, had been well blocked. 42.2. For the Nile making its outlets into the Egyptian sea by seven mouths, at each of the mouths a city had been built, having great towers on each side of the stream and a wooden bridge commanding the entrance. He especially fortified the Pelusiac mouth, because it lies first toward those coming from Syria and it seemed that through this most of all the enemy would make their approach. 42.3. For he dug a trench across this, and walled off the entrances at the most convenient places, and of the approaches he made the land-passable ones into marsh, and the navigable ones he blocked with mounds. Therefore it was not easy either for the ships to sail in or for the cavalry to draw near or for the infantry to approach. 42.4. The generals under Pharnabazus, finding the Pelusiac mouth wonderfully fortified and guarded by a multitude of soldiers, wholly rejected forcing through it, and resolved to make their entrance through another mouth. Therefore, sailing on the open sea so that the ships should not be seen by the enemy, they put in at the mouth called the Mendesian, which had a beach extending over a considerable space. Disembarking there with three thousand soldiers, both Pharnabazus and Iphicrates advanced against the small fortified town on the mouth. 42.5. The Egyptians coming to the rescue with three thousand horse and foot, and a fierce battle taking place, and many having come up to the Persians from the ships, the Egyptians, surrounded, many died, and not a few were taken alive; the survivors were pursued together into the city. Iphicrates and his men, bursting in together with the garrison inside the walls and mastering the stronghold, razed it and enslaved the inhabitants. 43.1. After this faction fell upon the generals, through which they failed of the undertaking. For Iphicrates, learning from the prisoners that Memphis was undefended, being the most strategic city in Egypt, advised sailing up immediately to Memphis before the Egyptian forces should arrive; but Pharnabazus and his men thought they ought to await the whole force of the Persians; for the campaign against Memphis would be safer. 43.2. When Iphicrates asked that the mercenaries present be given to him, and undertook with them to master the city, Pharnabazus suspected his boldness and virtue, lest he hold Egypt for himself. Therefore, Pharnabazus not consenting, Iphicrates protested, saying that if they let pass the sharpness of the occasions they would render the whole campaign fruitless. Some of the generals envied him and attached unjust slanders. 43.3. The Egyptians, gaining much respite, sent to Memphis a sufficient garrison, and coming with all their forces against the plundered fortified town, and having many advantages because of the strength of the places, made continual encounters with the enemy. Ever growing stronger, they slew many of the Persians and took courage against the enemy. 43.4. The campaign about this town being prolonged, and the Etesian winds now having come, the Nile, filling and covering every place with the abundance of its stream, ever more fortified Egypt. The leaders of the Persians, the situation ever working against them, decided to make their departure from Egypt. 43.5. Therefore, as they were returning to Asia, and a difference arising between Pharnabazus and Iphicrates, Iphicrates, suspecting that he might be arrested and meet with punishment, as Conon the Athenian had suffered, resolved to flee secretly from the camp; therefore, having prepared a boat, he departed unobserved by night and sailed to Athens. 43.6. Pharnabazus, sending envoys, accused Iphicrates as having been the cause of Egypt not being taken. The Athenians gave the Persians the answer that, if they found him to have done wrong, they would punish him according to his deserts; but they themselves, a little time later, appointed Iphicrates general over the fleet.

44.1. It is not foreign to set down the things recorded about the virtue of Iphicrates. For this man is handed down to have had a generalship's quickness of wit and to have used by nature a distinguished gift toward every good device. Taking on, then, in the Persian War the long experience of soldierly works, he devised many things useful for war, and especially was ambitious about the equipment. 44.2. For the Greeks using great shields and on this account being hard to move, he reduced the shields and constructed pelta of moderate size, aiming well at both things, both the sufficient covering of the bodies and the enabling of those who used the pelta, through their lightness, to be wholly nimble. 44.3. The convenience meeting with acceptance through trial, those formerly called from their shields hoplites were then renamed from the pelta peltasts. As for the spear and the sword, he made the change to the opposite; for he increased the spears by half their size, and made the swords almost double. The proof confirming by trial the device of the general, the achievement of the experiment deemed the conception worthy of glory. 44.4. He made the footwear for the soldiers easily loosed and light, those called even to the present day iphicratides from him. He introduced many other things useful for campaigns, about which it would be long to write. The Persian campaign against Egypt, then, having met with great preparation, beyond expectation had a fruitless end. 45.1. In Greece, the cities being disturbed because of the unaccustomed constitution, and many rising up because of the common anarchy, the Lacedaemonians helped those who were establishing oligarchies, while the Athenians allied themselves with those who clung to democracy. 45.2. For both these cities kept the treaties a little time, but after this, cooperating with their own cities, made war, no longer taking thought of the common concluded peace. Therefore in Zacynthus the people, being harsh and bearing malice toward those who had been masters of the constitution during the supremacy of the Lacedaemonians, banished all . . . These, fleeing to Timotheus the leader of the Athenian fleet, sailed with him and were his allies. 45.3. Setting up this man as cooperator, and being transported to the island by him, they seized a strong stronghold by the sea, which they named Arcadia. Setting out from this, and having Timotheus as helper, they harassed those in the city. 45.4. The Zacynthians asking the Lacedaemonians to help, at first, sending envoys to Athens, they accused Timotheus; but when they saw the people inclining toward the exiles, they constituted a fleet, and manning twenty-five triremes sent out an alliance to the Zacynthians, giving the command to Aristocrates. 46.1. At the same time as these things were being done, some of the people of Corcyra who were friends of the Lacedaemonians, rising up against the people, called upon the Spartans to send a naval force, promising to deliver Corcyra to them. The Lacedaemonians, knowing that Corcyra had a great weight for those who clung to the sea, were eager to become masters of this city. 46.2. Immediately, then, they sent to Corcyra twenty-two triremes, giving the command to Alcidas. They pretended to send this fleet to Sicily, in order that, being received as friends by the Corcyraeans, they might hold the city with the exiles. 46.3. The Corcyraeans, learning the design of the Spartans, carefully guarded the city and sent envoys to Athens for help. The Athenians, voting to help the Corcyraeans and the exiles of the Zacynthians, sent to Zacynthus Ctesicles as general, leading the exiles, and prepared to send a naval force to Corcyra. 46.4. At the same time as these things were being done, in Boeotia the Plataeans, clinging to the alliance with the Athenians, sent for soldiers, having resolved to deliver the city to the Athenians. At this the boeotarchs, being harshly disposed toward the Plataeans and eager to forestall the alliance from the Athenians, immediately led a considerable force against them. 46.5. Coming near the city of the Plataeans, the attack being unexpected, most of the Plataeans, caught in the country by the cavalry, were seized, while the rest, fleeing to the city and being destitute of allies, were compelled to conclude agreements satisfactory to the enemy; for they had to take their movables and depart from the city and no longer set foot in Boeotia. 46.6. After this the Thebans, razing Plataea and plundering Thespiae, which was ill disposed toward them, the Plataeans, fleeing to Athens with children and wives, obtained equal citizenship because of the goodness of the people. And the affairs in Boeotia were in this state.

47.1. The Lacedaemonians, appointing Mnasippus general, sent him out against Corcyra, having sixty-five triremes and fifteen hundred soldiers. He, sailing to the island and taking on the exiles, sailed into the harbour, and mastered four ships, while of the remaining three ships, which fled to the land, these were burned by the Corcyraeans, that they might not become subject to the enemy. He conquered also on land those who had seized a certain hill, and in general set much fear upon the Corcyraeans. 47.2. The Athenians had earlier sent Timotheus the son of Conon to help the Corcyraeans with sixty ships; he, before this alliance, sailing to Thrace and calling many cities to alliance, added thirty triremes; 47.3. but at that time, being late for the alliance of the Corcyraeans, he at first lost his command, the people being harshly disposed toward him; but when he sailed back to Athens, bringing a multitude of envoys of those concluding the alliance and having added thirty triremes, and having well equipped the whole fleet for the war, the people repented and again restored to him the command. 47.4. They constructed besides forty other triremes, so that all became a hundred and thirty; and they made considerable preparations of grain and missiles and the other things useful for war. For the present, choosing Ctesicles as general, they sent him out with five hundred soldiers to help the Corcyraeans. 47.5. He, secretly by night, sailed into Corcyra unobserved by the besiegers; and finding those in the city in faction with one another and managing the war badly, he dissolved the factions, and taking much care of the city made the besieged confident. 47.6. And at first, attacking the besiegers unexpectedly, he slew about two hundred of them; later, a great battle taking place, he both slew Mnasippus and not a few of the others; and at last, shutting up the besiegers in a siege, he met with great praises. 47.7. The war about Corcyra being now almost at an end, the fleet of the Athenians sailed to Corcyra, having as generals Timotheus and Iphicrates. These, being late for the occasions, did nothing else worthy of memory, but falling in with Sicilian triremes, which Dionysius had sent to the Lacedaemonians for alliance, of which Cissides and Crinippus were leaders, they took with all their crews, being nine; and selling the captives as booty, and gathering more than sixty talents, they paid the force. 47.8. At the same time as these things were being done, in Cyprus Nicocles the eunuch treacherously slew Evagoras the king and mastered the kingdom of the Salaminians; and in Italy the Romans, arraying against the Praenestines and conquering, cut down most of those arrayed against them.

48.1. In the archonship at Athens of Asteius the Romans appointed in place of the consuls six military tribunes, Marcus Furius and Lucius Furius, and besides Aulus Postumius and Lucius Lucretius and Marcus Fabius and Lucius Postumius. In this year about the Peloponnese there occurred great earthquakes and incredible inundations of land and cities; for never in the times above had there occurred such sufferings about Greek cities, nor the destruction of cities with all their inhabitants, some divine working having contrived the destruction and ruin of the men. 48.2. The occasion increased the magnitude of the calamity; for the earthquake did not happen by day, in which it was possible for those in danger to help themselves, but the suffering occurring by night, the houses, falling because of the magnitude of the earthquake, were thrown into confusion, and the men, both because of the darkness and the unexpected and paradoxical nature of the situation, were unable to lay hold of safety. 48.3. The greater part, then, caught in the falls of the houses, perished; but when day came on, some leaped out of the houses, and thinking they had escaped the danger, fell into a greater and more paradoxical calamity; for the sea being lifted up to a great height and a high wave being raised, all were overwhelmed and made to disappear together with their fatherlands. This suffering occurred about two cities of Achaea, Helice and Bura, of which Helice happened to have the greatest dignity of the cities in Achaea before the earthquake. 48.4. Concerning the disasters there being great inquiry, the natural philosophers try to refer the causes of such sufferings not to the divine, but to certain natural and necessary circumstances, while those piously disposed toward the divine assign certain plausible causes of what happened, as the calamity having come about through the wrath of the gods upon those who had committed impiety toward the divine; about which we too shall try to write accurately in the particular history. 49.1. In Ionia nine cities were accustomed to make a common assembly, the Panionia, and to sacrifice together ancient and great sacrifices to Poseidon at the place called Mycale in a desert place. Later, wars arising about these places, being unable to hold the Panionia, they transferred the festival to a safe place, which was near Ephesus. Sending envoys to Delphi, they received oracles to take cult-objects from their ancient and ancestral altars from Helice in the country then called Ionian, but now Achaea. 49.2. The Ionians, then, in accordance with the oracle, sent to Achaea those who should take the cult-objects; these, conferring with the common body of the Achaeans, persuaded them to give what was asked. But those dwelling in Helice, having an ancient saying that they would then be in danger when the Ionians sacrificed at the altar of Poseidon, reckoning up the oracle, objected to the Ionians concerning the cult-objects, saying that the precinct was not common to the Achaeans but their own private; and those dwelling in Bura cooperated with them. 49.3. The Achaeans by a common decree consenting, the Ionians sacrificed at the altar of Poseidon in accordance with the oracle, but the people of Helice scattered the property of the Ionians and seized the envoys, and committed impiety toward the divine. In requital of which they say that Poseidon, being wrathful, by the earthquake and the inundation destroyed the impious cities. 49.4. They say that there are clear proofs that the wrath came upon the cities from Poseidon, because this god has been understood to have authority over earthquakes and inundations, and because the Peloponnese is thought in antiquity to have been a dwelling-place of Poseidon, and this country to be reckoned as if sacred to Poseidon, and in sum all the cities in the Peloponnese honour this god most of the immortals. 49.5. Besides these things, the Peloponnese has in its depths great hollows and great gatherings of running waters. For there are in it two rivers manifestly flowing under the earth; for the river about Pheneus, sinking into the earth in former times, disappeared, the caverns underground receiving it, and the one about Stymphelus, sinking into a chasm, is carried for two hundred stades hidden under the earth and comes out by the city of the Argives. 49.6. Besides what has been said, they say that, except for those who committed impiety, no one else fell into the calamity. And concerning the earthquakes and inundations that occurred, we shall be content with what has been said.

50.1. In the archonship at Athens of Alcisthenes the Romans appointed in place of the consuls eight military tribunes, Lucius Valerius and Publius, and besides Gaius Terentius and Lucius Menenius, and besides these Gaius Sulpicius and Titus Papirius and Lucius Aemilius, and among the Eleians the hundred-and-second Olympiad was celebrated, in which Damon the Thurian was victor in the stadion. 50.2. In this year, the Lacedaemonians having held the leadership of Greece for almost five hundred years, the divinity foretokened to them the loss of their rule; for there was seen in the heaven for many nights a great burning torch, named from its shape a fiery beam; and a little later the Spartans, unexpectedly defeated in a great battle, lost their leadership beyond hope. 50.3. Some of the natural philosophers referred the origin of the torch to natural causes, declaring that such apparitions occur of necessity at fixed times, and that about such things the Chaldeans in Babylon and the other astrologers, making clear predictions, hit the mark; and that they do not marvel when such a thing happens, but rather if it does not happen, the things being completed in their own several periods by eternal motions and fixed courses. The torch, at any rate, had such brightness and power of light that it made shadows on the earth like the moon. 50.4. About these times Artaxerxes the King, seeing Greece again disturbed, sent envoys, calling upon them to settle the civil wars and to conclude a common peace according to the agreements which they had previously made. All the Greeks gladly receiving the words, all the cities concluded a common peace except the Thebans; for the Thebans alone, bringing Boeotia under one confederacy, were not received by the Greeks, because it pleased all that the oaths and treaties should be made by city. Therefore, becoming excluded from the treaty as also before, they held Boeotia in their own single confederacy. 50.5. At this the Lacedaemonians, being provoked, resolved to campaign against them with a great force, as common enemies; for they greatly suspected their increase, lest, leading all Boeotia, they should dissolve the leadership of Sparta, having seized an opportunity. For, continually spending time in the gymnasia, they were strong in body, and being by nature warlike they fell behind no Greek nation in valour. 50.6. They had also leaders distinguished in virtue, many others, but three the greatest, Epaminondas and Gorgias, and besides Pelopidas; and the city of the Thebans, through the eminence of their ancestors in the heroic times, was full of spirit and reached out for great deeds. In this year, then, the Lacedaemonians prepared for the war and enrolled forces, some of citizens, some from the allies.

51.1. In the archonship at Athens of Phrasiclides the Romans appointed in place of the consuls eight military tribunes, Publius Manius and Gaius, Erenucius and Gaius Sestus and Tiberius Julius, and besides Lucius Lavinius and Publius Tribonius and Gaius Manlius, and besides these Lucius Antistius. In this year the Thebans, having become excluded from the treaty, were compelled to take up alone the war against the Lacedaemonians; for it was not possible for any city to ally itself, because all had concluded the common peace. 51.2. The Lacedaemonians, the Thebans being isolated, resolved to make war on them and to enslave Thebes. The preparation of the Lacedaemonians being manifest, and the Thebans being destitute of allies, all supposed that they would easily be subdued by the Spartans. 51.3. Therefore those of the Greeks who were well disposed toward the Thebans grieved with them at the expected calamities, while those ill disposed were overjoyed, as the Thebans being immediately about to be enslaved. At last the Lacedaemonians, having prepared a great force, gave it to Cleombrotus the king, and first sent envoys to Thebes, ordering them to leave all the cities in Boeotia independent, to refound Plataea and Thespiae, and to restore the country to those who had earlier been masters. 51.4. The Thebans answering that neither did they themselves meddle in any of the affairs of Laconia, nor was it fitting for the Lacedaemonians to lay hold of the affairs of Boeotia; such answers having been given, the Lacedaemonians immediately sent out Cleombrotus with the force against Thebes; and the allies of the Lacedaemonians were eager for the war, hoping that there would be neither contest nor battle, but that they would master the Boeotians without effort. 52.1. These, then, advancing, when they came to Coronea, encamped and awaited the allies who were late. The Thebans, because of the presence of the enemy, voted to remove their children and wives to Athens, and themselves, choosing Epaminondas as general, entrusted to him the affairs of the war, with six boeotarchs present with him. 52.2. Epaminondas, enrolling in full force the Thebans who were of military age for the battle and the fit men of the other Boeotians, led the force out of Thebes, having in all not more than six thousand. 52.3. At the going out of the city of the soldiers, to many there seemed to appear unfavourable omens for the army. For about the gates a blind herald met Epaminondas and his men, who, recovering runaway slaves, and as was customary, proclaimed announcing that none should lead them out of Thebes nor make them disappear, but should lead them back and bring them safe again. 52.4. The elder of those who heard the herald made an omen of the future, but the younger kept quiet, lest they should seem through cowardice to turn Epaminondas from the campaign. Epaminondas, to those saying they ought to heed the omens, said: "One omen is best, to defend one's fatherland." 52.5. Epaminondas having by this frankness struck dismay into those who were cautious, another omen appeared more troublesome than the former. For the secretary advanced holding a spear with a fillet upon it, and signalled what was commanded by the leaders; a wind arising, it came to pass that the fillet, torn off, was wrapped about a stele standing over a tomb; and there were buried in this place certain Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians who, having campaigned with Agesilaus, had died. 52.6. Some of the elders, again falling in with this, protested against leading the force forward, the gods manifestly forbidding; but he, answering them nothing, led the army forward, considering that the reckoning on behalf of noble things and the memory of just things were more to be chosen than the present omens. 52.7. Epaminondas, then, having pursued philosophy and prudently using the reasonings from education, at the moment met with blame from many, but later, seeming through his successes to excel in generalship's understanding, became the cause of the greatest goods to his fatherland. For immediately leading the force forward, and forestalling the seizure of the narrows about Coronea, he encamped.

53.1. Cleombrotus, learning that the enemy had forestalled him in seizing the passes, gave up making his way through there, but marching through Phocis, and going through the coast road, which was difficult, he invaded Boeotia without danger; and along the way mastering certain small fortified towns, he gained possession of ten triremes. 53.2. After this, coming to the place called Leuctra, he encamped and refreshed the soldiers from the march. The Boeotians, advancing against the enemy, when they drew near them and, crossing certain hills, suddenly perceived the Lacedaemonians occupying the whole Leuctrian plain, were struck with dismay seeing the magnitude of the force. 53.3. The boeotarchs taking counsel together and deliberating whether they ought to remain and fight it out against a force many times larger, or, making their withdrawal, constitute the battle in commanding positions, the opinions of the leaders happened to be equal. For there being six boeotarchs, three thought they ought to lead the force away, and three to remain and fight it out, among whom Epaminondas too was counted. Great and hard-to-decide being the perplexity, a seventh boeotarch came, whom Epaminondas, persuading to become of one vote with him, had the advantage in the opinion. The contest for the whole, then, was in this manner ratified. 53.4. Epaminondas, seeing the soldiers superstitious because of the omens that had occurred, was ambitious by his own device and generalship to change the precautions of the multitude. Therefore, certain men having lately come from Thebes, he persuaded them to say that the arms about the temple of Heracles had unexpectedly become invisible, and that word had spread in Thebes that the ancient heroes had taken them up and gone away to help the Boeotians. He set up another as having lately come up from Trophonius and saying that the god had ordered them, when they conquered at Leuctra, to establish a contest with crowns for Zeus the King; from which indeed the Boeotians hold this festival at Lebadea. 54.1. Leandrias the Spartan cooperated in this device, having fled from Lacedaemon and at that time campaigning with the Thebans. This man, brought forward in the assembly, declared that there was an ancient saying among the Spartans that they would then lose their leadership when at Leuctra they should be defeated by the Thebans. 54.2. There came also to Epaminondas certain native oracle-interpreters, saying that about the tomb of the daughters of Leuctrus and Scedasus the Lacedaemonians must fall into a great calamity for some such causes as these. 54.3. There was a Leuctrus, from whom this plain got its name. The daughters of this man and likewise the maidens of a certain Scedasus envoys of the Lacedaemonians outraged; and they, having been outraged, not bearing the misfortune, cursing the fatherland that had sent the outragers, ended their lives by their own hand. 54.4. Many other such things being told, and Epaminondas having gathered an assembly and exhorted the soldiers with appropriate speeches to the contest, all changed their opinions, and were released from their superstition, and became confident in their souls for the battle. 54.5. There came also at this time an alliance to the Thebans from the Thessalians, foot fifteen hundred and horse five hundred, of whom Jason was leader. He persuaded both the Boeotians and the Lacedaemonians to make a truce and to be on their guard against the unaccountable turns of fortune. 54.6. The truce being made, Cleombrotus broke camp with the force from Boeotia, and there met him another great force of Lacedaemonians and the allies, led by Archidamus the son of Agesilaus. For the Spartans, observing the readiness of the Boeotians, and being on their guard against the boldness and desperation, had sent out the second force, that by the multitude of those fighting they might overcome the daring of the enemy. 54.7. The forces having come together into one, the Lacedaemonians supposed it to be shameful to fear the valours of the Boeotians. Therefore, holding the truce as nothing, with much eagerness they came back to Leuctra. The Boeotians being also ready for battle, both sides drew up their forces.

55.1. Among the Lacedaemonians the leaders descended from Heracles were stationed on the wings, Cleombrotus the king and Archidamus the son of Agesilaus the king; among the Boeotians Epaminondas, using a peculiar and extraordinary order, through his own generalship won the renowned victory. 55.2. For choosing from the whole force the best, he stationed them on the one part, with whom he himself also was about to fight it out; the weakest he stationed on the other wing and ordered them to avoid battle and, at the onset of the enemy, to withdraw little by little. Therefore, making the phalanx oblique, he decided to decide the battle by the wing that had the chosen men. 55.3. When the trumpets on both sides signalled the battle-cry, and at the first onset the forces raised the war-shout together, the Lacedaemonians with both wings advanced, having made the shape of the phalanx crescent-like, while the Boeotians with the one wing withdrew, but with the other at a run engaged the enemy. 55.4. When they came to close quarters with one another, at first both sides fighting ardently, the battle was even; but after this, the men of Epaminondas, having the advantage both through their valour and the density of the formation, many of the Peloponnesians were slain. For they did not endure to bear the weight of the bravery of the chosen men, but of those who withstood, some fell, others were wounded, receiving all the blows in front. 55.5. So long, then, as Cleombrotus the king of the Lacedaemonians lived, having many who locked shields with him and eagerly died before him, the turn of the victory was unclear; but when this man, enduring every danger, was unable to force those who withstood, but fighting heroically and falling in with many wounds died, then, a concourse occurring about the body, a multitude of corpses was heaped up. 56.1. There being anarchy about the wing, the men of Epaminondas, pressing heavily upon the Lacedaemonians, at first by force pushed the enemy a little from their position, while the Lacedaemonians, fighting brilliantly about the king, became masters of the body, but had not strength to attain the victory. 56.2. The chosen men surpassing in bravery, and the virtue and exhortation of Epaminondas contributing much, the Lacedaemonians with difficulty were forced back; at first, withdrawing, they did not break their formation, but at last, many being slain and the commanding leader having died, there occurred a complete rout of the army. 56.3. The men of Epaminondas, pressing upon the fleeing and cutting down many of the enemy, carried off a most notable victory. For having engaged with the best of the Greeks, and with few unexpectedly prevailing over many times their number, they acquired a great reputation for valour. The greatest praises were given to the general Epaminondas, who by his own valour especially and generalship's understanding had overcome the unconquered leaders of Greece. 56.4. There fell in the battle of the Lacedaemonians not fewer than four thousand, and of the Boeotians about three hundred. After this, concerning the taking up of the dead and the departure of the Lacedaemonians to the Peloponnese, they made a truce. And the things that occurred about the battle at Leuctra had such an end. 57.1. The annual period having passed, at Athens the archon was Dysnicetus, and at Rome four military tribunes were appointed in place of the consuls, Quintus Servilius and Lucius Furius, and besides Gaius Licinius and Publius Caelius. In this year the Thebans, campaigning against Orchomenus with a great force, attempted to enslave the city, but Epaminondas advising that those who reach out for the leadership of the Greeks ought to preserve by humanity the things accomplished by valour, they changed their mind. Therefore they ranged the Orchomenians among the allied country, and after this, making the Phocians and Aetolians and Locrians friends, they made their return into Boeotia. 57.2. Jason the tyrant of Pherae, ever increasing more, campaigned into Locris, and Heraclea in Trachis, taking it through betrayal, he made desolate, and gave the country to the Oetaeans and Malians; after this, breaking camp to Perrhaebia, of the cities some he brought over by humane speeches, others he mastered by force. His dominion quickly being strengthened, those dwelling in Thessaly suspected his increase and greed. 57.3. At the same time as these things were being done, in the city of the Argives there occurred faction and so great a slaughter as is recorded never to have occurred among any others of the Greeks. This revolution was called among the Greeks the clubbing, from the manner of the death receiving this name. 58.1. The faction occurred for some such causes as these. The city of the Argives being a democracy and certain demagogues provoking the multitude against those superior in power and reputation, those slandered, banding together, resolved to overthrow the democracy. 58.2. Some of those thought to be cooperators being tortured, the rest, fearing the punishment from the tortures, removed themselves from life; but one in the tortures confessing and receiving a pledge, the informer accused thirty of the most notable, and the people, not having tested accurately all who had been slandered, slew them and confiscated their properties. 58.3. Many others being under suspicion, and the demagogues supporting with false slanders, the multitude was so far enraged that of all the accused, being many and very wealthy, they condemned to death. More than twelve hundred of the powerful men being slain, the people did not even spare the demagogues themselves. 58.4. For because of the magnitude of the calamity the demagogues, fearing lest something unaccountable befall them, desisted from the accusation, and the crowds, thinking themselves abandoned by them, and on this account provoked, slew all the demagogues. These, then, as if some divinity took vengeance, met with the fitting punishment, and the people, ceasing from their frenzy, returned to their former understanding.

59.1. About the same times Lycomedes the Tegeate persuaded the Arcadians to be ranged into one confederacy and to have a common assembly composed of ten thousand men, and that these should have authority to deliberate about war and peace. 59.2. A great faction occurring among the Arcadians, and those at variance being decided by arms, many were slain, and more than fourteen hundred fled, some to Sparta, others to Pallantium. 59.3. These, then, given up by the Pallantians, were slaughtered by the victors; and those who fled to Sparta persuaded the Lacedaemonians to campaign into Arcadia. 59.4. Therefore Agesilaus the king, with a force and the exiles, invaded the country of the Tegeates, because these seemed to have been the cause of the faction and the flight. Ravaging the country and making assaults on the city, he struck dismay into those of the Arcadians who acted against him. 60.1. At the same time as these things were being done, Jason the tyrant of Pherae, distinguished in generalship's understanding and having brought many of the neighbours into alliance, persuaded the Thessalians to lay claim to the leadership of the Greeks; for this, as a kind of prize of valour, lay before those able to dispute it. 60.2. For it came to pass that the Lacedaemonians had fallen into a great calamity at Leuctra, that the Athenians clung only to the rule by sea, that the Thebans were not worthy of the first place, and that the Argives had been humbled because of factions and civil slaughters. Therefore the Thessalians, setting up Jason as leader of the whole, entrusted to him the affairs of the war. Jason, taking over the leadership, brought over certain of the neighbouring peoples and made an alliance with Amyntas the king of the Macedonians. 60.3. Something peculiar occurred in this year; for of those in positions of power three died about the same time. Amyntas the son of Arrhidaeus, reigning over Macedonia, died, having ruled twenty-four years, leaving three sons, Alexander and Perdiccas and Philip; his son Alexander succeeded to the kingdom and ruled a year. 60.4. Likewise also Agesipolis the king of the Lacedaemonians passed away, having ruled a year, and his brother Cleomenes, succeeding to the rule, reigned thirty-four years. 60.5. Third, Jason the Pheraean, chosen leader of Thessaly, and seeming to rule his subjects fairly, was treacherously slain, as Ephorus has written, by certain seven young men who conspired for the sake of glory, but as some write, by Polydorus his brother. This man too, succeeding to the dominion, ruled a year. 60.6. Duris the Samian the historian made the beginning of his Greek history from here. These things, then, were done in this year.

61.1. In the archonship at Athens of Lysistratus, among the Romans there occurred faction, some thinking they ought to choose consuls, others military tribunes. For some time, then, anarchy held the faction, but after this it was resolved to choose six military tribunes; and there were appointed Lucius Aemilius and Gaius Verginius and Servius Sulpicius, and besides these Lucius Quinctius and Gaius Cornelius, and besides Gaius Valerius. 61.2. In this year Polydorus the Pheraean, who had ruled the Thessalians, was slain by Alexander his nephew with poison, having been invited to drink; and his nephew Alexander, succeeding to the dominion, ruled eleven years. This man, having acquired the dominion lawlessly and violently, managed the affairs of his rule in accordance with this choice. For while the rulers before him dealt fairly with the multitude, and on this account were loved, this man, ruling violently and harshly, was hated. 61.3. Therefore, fearing his lawlessness, certain of the Larissaeans, those called from their nobility Aleuadae, agreed with one another to overthrow the dominion. Departing from Larissa into Macedonia, they persuaded Alexander the king to help overthrow the tyrant. 61.4. While these were occupied about this, Alexander the Pheraean, learning of the preparation against himself, enrolled the men fit for the campaign, planning to constitute the battle in Macedonia. But the king of the Macedonians, having with him the exiles from Larissa, forestalling the enemy, came with his force to Larissa; brought inside the walls by the Larissaeans, he mastered the city except for the citadel. 61.5. After this he both took the citadel by siege and, bringing over the city Crannon, agreed to give back the cities to the Thessalians; but despising the engagement, and bringing in considerable garrisons, he himself held the cities. The Pheraean Alexander, both pursued and struck with dismay, returned to Pherae. And the affairs in Thessaly were in this state. 62.1. In the Peloponnese the Lacedaemonians sent Polytropus as general into Arcadia, having a thousand citizen hoplites and five hundred exiles of the Argives and Boeotians. He, coming to Arcadian Orchomenus, guarded this city, which was favourably disposed toward the Spartans. 62.2. Lycomedes the Mantinean, being general of the Arcadians, taking the men called the chosen, being five thousand, came to Orchomenus. The Lacedaemonians leading the force out of the city, a fierce battle took place, in which both the general of the Lacedaemonians was slain and of the others about two hundred; the rest were pursued together into the city. 62.3. The Arcadians, although they had conquered, nevertheless were on their guard against the weight of Sparta, and did not suppose they would be able by themselves to fight the war against the Lacedaemonians. Therefore, taking on the Argives and Eleians, at first they sent envoys to Athens, asking them to make an alliance against the Spartans; but when no one heeded them, sending an embassy to the Thebans they persuaded them to conclude an alliance against the Lacedaemonians. 62.4. Immediately, then, the Boeotians led out the force, taking on as allies both Locrians and Phocians. These, then, advanced against the Peloponnese, Epaminondas and Pelopidas being boeotarchs; for to these the other boeotarchs had willingly yielded the generalship, because of the understanding and valour of the men. 62.5. When they came to Arcadia, there came to them in full force both the Arcadians and Eleians and Argives and all the other allies. More than fifty thousand being gathered, their leaders, taking counsel together, resolved to march against Sparta itself and to ravage all Laconia.

63.1. The Lacedaemonians, having lost many of their young men in the calamity at Leuctra, and having lost not a few in the other defeats, and in sum being shut up by fortune into few citizen-soldiers, and besides this their allies, some having revolted, some for like causes being short of men, fell into great helplessness. Therefore they were compelled to flee for refuge to the aid of the Athenians, upon whom in former times they had set thirty tyrants, whom they had prevented from rebuilding the walls of their city, and whom they had attempted, by utterly destroying the city, to make Attica a sheep-pasture. 63.2. But indeed nothing is stronger than necessity and fortune, by which the Lacedaemonians were forced to beg of their bitterest enemies. Nevertheless they were not deceived of their hopes. For the people of the Athenians, being magnanimous and humane, were not struck with dismay at the strength of the Thebans, but voted to help the Lacedaemonians, who were in danger of being enslaved, in full force. And at once, appointing Iphicrates general, they sent out the young men on the same day, being twelve thousand. Iphicrates, then, having his soldiers eager, advanced with the force in haste. 63.3. The Lacedaemonians, the enemy encamping on the borders of Laconia, themselves also in full force making their going out from Sparta, advanced against their opponents, humbled in the forces of their soldiers, but confident in the virtues of their souls. 63.4. The men of Epaminondas, seeing the country of the Lacedaemonians hard to invade, did not think it of advantage to make the invasion in a single such great force, but dividing themselves into four parts decided to make the onset at several places. 64.1. The first part, that of the Boeotians, made its march in the middle against the city called Sellasia, and made those dwelling there revolt from the Lacedaemonians. 64.2. The Argives, invading by the borders of the Tegeatid country, joined battle with those guarding the passes, and both slew the leader of the garrison, Alexander the Spartan, and slew of the others about two hundred, among whom were also the exiles of the Boeotians. 64.3. The third part, composed of the Arcadians and having the most soldiers, invaded the country called the Sciritis, which Ischolas, a man distinguished in valour and understanding, was guarding with many soldiers. This man, of the most notable soldiers, accomplished a heroic deed worthy of memory. 64.4. For seeing that because of the multitude of the enemy all who joined battle would be slain, he judged it unworthy of Sparta to leave the post in the passes, but that to save the soldiers would be useful to the fatherland; therefore, unexpectedly he provided for both, and zealously imitated the valour of King Leonidas at Thermopylae of old. 64.5. For having picked out the young men, these he sent to Sparta, to be useful to her who was in danger about the whole; while he himself, with the elders, guarding the post and slaying many of the enemy, surrounded by the Arcadians, was slain with all his men. 64.6. The Eleians, having the fourth part, and going through other regions that were open, came to Hellasia; for to this place all had been ordered to come. The whole force being gathered at Hellasia, they advanced against Sparta itself, ravaging at the same time and burning the country. 65.1. The Lacedaemonians, having kept Laconia unravaged for five hundred years, then seeing it laid waste by the enemy, did not endure, but, rushing forward in their wrath, leaped out of the city; being prevented by the elders from advancing too far from their fatherland, lest someone attack, they were persuaded to keep quiet and to provide safety for the city. 65.2. The men of Epaminondas coming down through Taygetus to the Eurotas, and crossing the river, which was violent in its stream in the winter season, the Lacedaemonians, seeing the force of their opponents thrown into confusion because of the difficulty of the crossing, took a fit opportunity for an attack, and leaving the women and children, and besides the aged, in the city to guard Sparta, they themselves, having arrayed the young men in full force, poured out against the enemy, and falling suddenly upon those crossing, made much slaughter. 65.3. The Boeotians and Arcadians defending and surrounding their opponents by their multitude, the Spartans, having slain many, returned to the city, having manifestly displayed their own bravery. 65.4. After this, the men of Epaminondas attacking the city with the whole force strikingly, the Spartans, having as helper the strength of the places, slew many of those who rashly forced their way; and at last the besiegers, bringing in every zeal, at first hoped to master Sparta by force; but when of those who forced their way some died and some were wounded, the men of Epaminondas recalled the soldiers by the trumpet, and themselves, coming up to the city, challenged the Spartans to battle, or ordered them to agree that they were inferior to the enemy. 65.5. The Spartans answering that, taking a fit opportunity, they would fight it out for the whole, they departed from the city. Having ravaged all Laconia and gathered a countless multitude of booty, they withdrew to Arcadia. 65.6. After this the Athenians, being late for the occasions, returned to Attica, having done nothing worthy of memory; but to the Lacedaemonians there came from the allies four thousand soldiers to help. Besides these, adding the Helots lately freed, a thousand, and of the Boeotian exiles two hundred, and besides sending for not a few from the nearby cities, they prepared a force a match for the enemy. Holding this together in mass and exercising it, they ever took more courage and prepared for the contest about the whole.

66.1. Epaminondas, being by nature of great designs and reaching out for eternal glory, advised the Arcadians and the other allies to refound Messene, which had been many years desolate by the Lacedaemonians and had a favourable position against Sparta. All agreeing, he sought out the survivors of the Messenians, and enrolling such of the others as wished into the citizenship, he refounded Messene, making many its inhabitants. Allotting the country to them and rebuilding it, he restored a notable Greek city, and met with great acceptance among all men. 66.2. I think it not foreign, Messene having often been taken and razed, to run over from the beginning the things about it as in a summary. In antiquity, then, the descendants of Neleus and Nestor held it until the Trojan times, and after this Orestes the son of Agamemnon and his descendants until the return of the Heracleidae, and from this Cresphontes received the Messenian portion, and his descendants reigned over it for a time; later, the descendants of Cresphontes losing the kingdom, the Lacedaemonians became masters of it. 66.3. After this, Teleclus the king of the Lacedaemonians having died in a contest, the Messenians were subdued by the Lacedaemonians. This war they say lasted twenty years, the Lacedaemonians having sworn not to return to Sparta unless they took Messene. At that time it came to pass that those named the Partheniae were born and founded the city of the Tarentines. Later, the Messenians being slaves to the Lacedaemonians, Aristomenes persuaded the Messenians to revolt from the Spartans, and he did many evils to the Spartans, at which time also Tyrtaeus the poet was given by the Athenians as leader to the Spartans. 66.4. Some say that Aristomenes lived during the twenty-year war. Their last war occurred when a great earthquake had taken place; and Sparta being almost entirely thrown into confusion and becoming destitute of men, the survivors of the Messenians settled Ithome with the Helots who had revolted with them, Messene having been made desolate for many years. 66.5. Being unfortunate in all the wars, at last, becoming desolate, they settled at Naupactus, the Athenians having given them this city for a dwelling. And some of them were cast out into Cephallenia, and some settled in Sicily Messene, named from them. 66.6. And lastly, in the times in question, the Thebans, Epaminondas having persuaded them and gathered the Messenians from everywhere, settled Messene and restored to them their ancient country. Concerning Messene, then, so many and so great changes came to pass. 67.1. The Thebans, having accomplished all the aforesaid things in eighty-five days, and leaving a considerable guard of Messene, returned home. The Lacedaemonians, having unexpectedly got rid of the enemy, sent as envoys to Athens the most notable of the Spartans, and made the agreements about the leadership, so that the Athenians should rule the sea and the Lacedaemonians the land, and after this in both cities they made the leaderships common. 67.2. The Arcadians, providing Lycomedes as general, and giving him the men called the chosen, being five thousand, campaigned against Pellene in Laconia, and mastering the city by force slew the Lacedaemonian guards left in it, being more than three hundred, and enslaving the city and ravaging the country returned home, forestalling the help from the Lacedaemonians. 67.3. The Boeotians, the Thessalians sending for them for the freeing of the cities and the overthrow of the tyranny of Alexander of Pherae, sent out Pelopidas with a force into Thessaly, giving him instructions to manage the affairs in Thessaly for the advantage of the Boeotians. 67.4. He, coming to Larissa and finding the citadel garrisoned by Alexander the Macedonian, took it over, and going into Macedonia and making an alliance with Alexander the king of the Macedonians, received from him as a hostage his brother Philip, whom he sent to Thebes. Having managed the affairs in Thessaly as seemed to him advantageous to the Boeotians, he returned home.

68.1. These things being done, the Arcadians and Argives and Eleians, conspiring together, resolved to campaign against the Lacedaemonians, and sending an embassy to the Boeotians persuaded them to share in the war. They, appointing Epaminondas leader with other boeotarchs, sent out soldiers, seven thousand foot and six hundred horse. The Athenians, learning that the Boeotian army was passing into the Peloponnese, sent out a force and as general over it Chabrias. 68.2. He, coming to Corinth and taking on soldiers also from the Megarians and Pellenians, and besides Corinthians, constituted an army of ten thousand men; after this, the Lacedaemonians and the other allies coming to Corinth, there were gathered in all not fewer than twenty thousand. 68.3. It seemed best to them, then, to fortify the passes and to prevent the Boeotians from invading the Peloponnese. Beginning from Cenchreae as far as Lechaeum, they cut off the place with palisades and deep trenches; the works being quickly completed both because of the multitude of hands and the eagerness of the men, they forestalled the Boeotians, having fortified every place. 68.4. Epaminondas, coming with the force, examined it, and perceiving that the place where the Lacedaemonians were keeping guard was the easiest to approach, at first challenged the enemy to battle, being almost three times their number in multitude; but when no one dared to come out beyond the fortification, but all defended from the palisade, he brought force against the enemy. 68.5. At every place, then, there were fierce assaults, but most of all against the Lacedaemonians, the places being easy of approach and hard to guard. A great rivalry occurring on both sides, Epaminondas, having with him the best of the Thebans, with difficulty forced the Lacedaemonians; and breaking through their guard and leading the force across, he passed into the Peloponnese, having accomplished a deed in no way inferior to those previously achieved. 69.1. Immediately marching against Troezen and Epidaurus, he ravaged the country, but was unable to master the cities because they had considerable garrisons; Sicyon, however, and Phlius and certain other cities, striking them with dismay, he brought over. Campaigning against Corinth, and the Corinthians coming out, conquering them in battle, he pursued them within the walls; but the Boeotians, lifted up by their success, and certain of them rashly daring to force their way through the gate into the city, the Corinthians, fearing, turned to their houses, while Chabrias the general of the Athenians, prudently and at the same time confidently withstanding, both cast them out of the city and laid low many of the Boeotians. 69.2. A rivalry arising, the Boeotians, arraying the whole force, advanced against Corinth strikingly, and Chabrias, taking up the Athenians, advanced out of the city, and seizing the commanding positions withstood the onset of the enemy. 69.3. The Boeotians, then, trusting in the strength of their bodies and the experience from continual wars, hoped by force to master the Athenians, but the men of Chabrias, fighting from commanding positions and many things being supplied from the city, some of those who forced their way they slew, others they wounded. 69.4. The Boeotians, having suffered much, but being able to accomplish nothing, made their withdrawal. Chabrias, then, admired for valour and generalship's understanding, in this manner got rid of the enemy. 70.1. From Sicily Celts and Iberians, two thousand, sailed to Corinth, sent out by Dionysius the tyrant to ally with the Lacedaemonians, having received their pay for five months. The Greeks, wishing to make trial of them, led them forward, and in the encounters and battles, they behaving bravely, many both of the Boeotians and of the allies were slain by them. Therefore, seeming to excel in dexterity and valour and having rendered many services, and being honoured by the Lacedaemonians, at the end of the summer they were sent out to Sicily.

70.2. After this Philiscus, sent out by Artaxerxes the King, sailed to Greece, calling on the Greeks to settle their wars and to conclude a common peace. All the others gladly obeyed, but the Thebans, in accordance with their own principle bringing all Boeotia under one confederacy, were not admitted. The common peace being given up, Philiscus, leaving for the Lacedaemonians two thousand chosen mercenaries having received their pay, departed to Asia. 70.3. At the same time as these things were being done, Euphron the Sicyonian, distinguished in boldness and desperation, taking the Argives as cooperators, attempted a tyranny. Mastering his undertaking, he banished forty of the wealthiest of the Sicyonians, confiscating their properties, and becoming master of much money he gathered mercenaries and ruled the city. 71.1. In the archonship at Athens of Nausigenes, at Rome four military tribunes were appointed in place of the consuls, Lucius Papirius, Lucius Menenius, Servius Cornelius, Servius Sulpicius, and among the Eleians the hundred-and-third Olympiad was celebrated, in which Pythostratus the Athenian was victor in the stadion. In this year Ptolemy the Alorite, the son of Amyntas, treacherously slew Alexander his brother, and reigned over Macedonia three years. 71.2. In Boeotia Pelopidas, being a rival of Epaminondas in reputation in war, and seeing that he had advantageously arranged the affairs about the Peloponnese for the Boeotians, was eager to bring over the affairs outside the Peloponnese to the Thebans through himself. Taking Ismenias, a man his own friend and admired for virtue, he went to Thessaly. Coming to Alexander the tyrant of Pherae, he was unaccountably arrested together with Ismenias and given over to prison. 71.3. The Thebans being provoked at what had been done, and quickly sending out into Thessaly eight thousand hoplites and six hundred horse, Alexander, fearing, sent envoys to Athens about an alliance. To him immediately the people sent thirty ships and a thousand soldiers, of whom Autocles was general. 71.4. While this man was sailing round Euboea, the Thebans came to Thessaly. Alexander having gathered an infantry force and having many times more horse than the Boeotians, at first the Boeotians decided to settle the war by battle, having the Thessalians as cooperators; but when these abandoned them, and the Athenians and certain other allies came to Alexander, and food and drink and all else failed the Boeotians, the boeotarchs resolved to make their return home. 71.5. As they broke camp, and the march being through a plain country, Alexander followed with many horsemen and attacked those in the rearguard. Of the Boeotians some, being shot down continually, died, others fell in with wounds, and at last, being allowed neither to remain nor to advance, they fell into great helplessness, since the necessaries also were scarce. 71.6. They now despairing of their safety, Epaminondas, being a private man at that time, was appointed general by the soldiers. Immediately, picking out the light-armed and the horsemen, these he himself took, and being stationed in the rearguard, through these he held off the pursuing enemy and provided much safety for the hoplites leading the way; and making battles by turning back and using a skilful order, he saved the army. 71.7. Ever increasing his own good repute through his successes, he met with great acceptance both among the citizens and the allies. The Thebans, condemning those who had then been boeotarchs, fined them a sum of money. 72.1. The cause being sought, how such a man, being a private person, campaigned with those sent to Thessaly, the proper account of the explanation must be given. In the battle about Corinth Epaminondas, breaking through the guard of the Lacedaemonians on the outwork, and being able to slay many of the enemy, was content with the advantage and desisted from further battle. 72.2. A sufficient suspicion arising about him, as having spared the Lacedaemonians for the sake of a private favour, those who envied his reputation took an opportunity for a plausible slander. Bringing therefore against him a charge of treason, the multitude, provoked, removed him from the boeotarchy, and making him a private man sent him out with the others. But when by the outcomes he wiped out the slanders against himself, then the people restored him to his former good repute. 72.3. A little time later, a great battle occurred for the Lacedaemonians against the Arcadians, in which the Lacedaemonians conspicuously conquered. For after the defeat at Leuctra this was the first unexpected good fortune for them; for there fell of the Arcadians above ten thousand, and of the Lacedaemonians none. The priestesses of Dodona had foretold to them that this war would be tearless for the Lacedaemonians. 72.4. After the battle the Arcadians, fearing the invasions of the Lacedaemonians, founded on a certain strategic place the city named Megalopolis (the Great City), throwing together into it twenty villages of the Arcadians called Maenalians and Parrasians. And the affairs of the Greeks were in this state.

73.1. In Sicily Dionysius the tyrant, having considerable forces, and seeing the Carthaginians not well disposed toward the war both because of the pestilential disease that had occurred among them and the revolt of the Libyans, resolved to campaign against them. Not having a notable pretext for the quarrel, he pretended that the Phoenicians in his dominion had set foot upon the country under him. 73.2. Having prepared thirty thousand foot, three thousand horse, three hundred triremes, and the supply fitting for this force, he invaded the country under the Carthaginians. He immediately brought over Selinus and Entella, and ravaging the whole country and becoming master of the city of the Erycini, he besieged Lilybaeum; but there being many soldiers in it, he raised the siege. 73.3. Hearing that the dockyards of the Carthaginians had been burned, and thinking that their whole fleet had been destroyed, he was contemptuous, and of his own triremes he sent the best hundred and thirty to the harbour of the Erycini, and the rest he sent all to Syracuse. 73.4. The Carthaginians, unexpectedly manning two hundred ships, sailed against those moored in the harbour of the Erycini; the attack being unexpected, they carried off most of the triremes. After this, winter setting in, making a truce, they parted to their own cities, each side. 73.5. A little time later Dionysius, falling into sickness, died, having ruled thirty-eight years; and his son Dionysius, succeeding to the rule, was tyrant twelve years. 74.1. It is not foreign to the present history to relate both the causes of his death and the things that befell this ruler about the end of his life. Dionysius, then, having produced a tragedy at Athens at the Lenaea and won, one of those who sang in the chorus, supposing he would be brilliantly honoured if he were the first to announce the victory, sailed to Corinth. Finding there a ship sailing to Sicily and transferring to it, he had favouring winds, and sailing to Syracuse quickly announced the victory to the tyrant. 74.2. Dionysius honoured this man, and himself became overjoyed, and sacrificing thank-offerings to the gods held drinking-parties and great feasts. Entertaining his friends brilliantly, and at the drinking giving himself rather ambitiously to drunkenness, he fell into a more severe sickness because of the quantity of the liquids he had drunk down. 74.3. Having from the gods an oracle that he would die when he should prevail over his betters, he referred the oracle to the Carthaginians, supposing them to be his betters. Therefore, having often made war on them, he was accustomed in his victories to withdraw and willingly to be defeated, that he might not seem to have become better than the stronger. 74.4. Nevertheless he was unable by his cunning to outwit the necessity from fate, but being a bad poet and judged at Athens he conquered the better poets. Reasonably, then, according to the oracle, through prevailing over his betters he had the end of his life follow. 74.5. Dionysius the younger, succeeding to the tyranny, first gathering the multitude into an assembly, exhorted them with appropriate speeches to keep their hereditary goodwill toward him, then, having buried his father magnificently in the citadel by the gates called the Royal, he secured the affairs of his rule.

75.1. In the archonship at Athens of Polyzelus, in Rome there occurred anarchy because of certain political factions, and in Greece Alexander the tyrant of Pherae in Thessaly, having brought certain charges against the city of the Scotussaeans, called them to an assembly, and surrounding them with all his mercenaries slaughtered them, and casting the bodies of the dead into the trench before the walls, plundered the city. 75.2. Epaminondas the Theban, invading the Peloponnese with a force, brought over the Achaeans and certain other cities, and freed Dyme and Naupactus and Calydon, which was garrisoned by the Achaeans. The Boeotians campaigned also into Thessaly, and recovered Pelopidas from Alexander the tyrant of Pherae. 75.3. The Phliasians being warred upon by the Argives, Chares, sent by the Athenians as general with a force, helped; conquering the Argives in two battles and securing safety for the Phliasians, he returned to Athens. 76.1. The annual period having passed, at Athens the archon was Cephisodorus, and at Rome the people appointed four military tribunes in place of the consuls, Lucius Furius, Paulus Manlius, Servius Sulpicius, Servius Cornelius. In this year Themison the tyrant of Eretria seized Oropus. This city, being the Athenians', he lost unaccountably; for when the Athenians campaigned against him and far surpassed him in forces, the Thebans, coming to his aid and receiving the city as a trust, did not give it back. 76.2. At the same time as these things were being done, the Coans removed to the city now inhabited and constructed it considerable; for a multitude of men was gathered into it, and costly walls were built and a considerable harbour. From these times it ever increased more both in public revenues and in the wealth of private persons, and in sum became a rival to the foremost cities. 76.3. At the same time as these things were being done, the King of the Persians, sending envoys, persuaded the Greeks to settle their wars and to conclude a common peace with one another. Therefore the war called both the Laconian and the Boeotian was dissolved, having lasted more than five years, taking its beginning from the events at Leuctra. 76.4. There existed at these times men worthy of memory for education, Isocrates the orator and his pupils, and Aristotle the philosopher, and besides Anaximenes of Lampsacus and Plato the Athenian, and besides, of the Pythagorean philosophers the last, and Xenophon who wrote the histories, being in extreme old age; for he mentions the death of Epaminondas which occurred a little time later; and Aristippus and Antisthenes, and besides these Aeschines of Sphettus the Socratic.

77.1. In the archonship at Athens of Chion, at Rome military tribunes were appointed in place of the consuls, Quintus Servilius and Gaius Vetorius and Aulus Cornelius, and besides these Marcus Cornelius and Marcus Fabius. In this year, there being peace throughout all Greece, again beginnings of wars arose for certain of the cities and an unaccountable innovation of new affairs. For the exiles of the Arcadians, setting out from Elis, seized in the country called Triphylia a strong stronghold, which is named Lasion. 77.2. For many years the Arcadians and Eleians had disputed about Triphylia, and according to the superiority of each in the changes they alternately mastered the country; but at the times in question, the Arcadians holding Triphylia, the Eleians, with the pretext of the exiles, took it away from the Arcadians. 77.3. Therefore the Arcadians, being provoked, at first, sending out envoys, demanded back the stronghold; but when no one heeded them, they sent for an alliance from the Athenians and with this campaigned against Lasion. The Eleians coming to the aid of the exiles, a battle occurred near Lasion, and the Arcadians being many times more, the Eleians were defeated and lost more than two hundred soldiers. 77.4. This being the beginning of the war, it came to pass that the difference advanced further for the Arcadians and the Eleians; for immediately the Arcadians, lifted up by their advantage, campaigned against Elis, and took the cities Margana and Cronion, and besides Cyparissia and Coryphasium. 77.5. At the same time as these things were being done, in Macedonia Ptolemy the Alorite was treacherously slain by his brother Perdiccas, having reigned three years; and Perdiccas, succeeding to the rule, reigned over Macedonia five years. 78.1. In the archonship at Athens of Timocrates, at Rome three military tribunes were appointed in place of the consuls, Titus Quinctius and Servius Cornelius and Servius Sulpicius, and the Olympiad was celebrated by the Pisatans and Arcadians, the hundred-and-fourth, in which Phocides the Athenian was victor in the stadion. 78.2. In this year the Pisatans, renewing the ancient dignity of their fatherland and using certain mythical and ancient proofs, declared that the conduct of the Olympic festival belonged to them. Judging the present occasion fit to dispute the contest, they made an alliance with the Arcadians, who were enemies of the Eleians; and taking these as fellow-fighters, they campaigned against the Eleians who were just then holding the contest. 78.3. The Eleians withstanding in full force, a fierce battle took place, the Greeks present at the festival, crowned and at leisure, watching the battle without danger and signalling the bravery on each side. At last the Pisatans, conquering, held the contest, and this Olympiad the Eleians did not afterward record, because it seemed to have been conducted by force and unjustly. 78.4. At the same time as these things were being done, Epaminondas the Theban, having the greatest dignity of the citizens, an assembly being gathered, discoursed to the citizens, urging them to lay hold of the leadership by sea. Setting forth a speech long pondered, he showed this undertaking to be both advantageous and possible, both bringing forward other things and that for those who prevail on land it is easy to acquire the rule of the sea; for the Athenians too, in the war against Xerxes, manning two hundred ships of their own, had been subject to the Lacedaemonians who furnished ten. Having appropriately discoursed many other things toward this purpose, he persuaded the Thebans to lay hold of the rule by sea.

79.1. Immediately, then, the people voted to build a hundred triremes and dockyards equal in number to these, and to urge the Rhodians and Chians and Byzantines to help the undertakings. He himself, sent out with a force to the aforesaid cities, struck dismay into Laches the general of the Athenians, who had a considerable fleet and had been sent to hinder the Thebans, and compelling him to sail away, made the cities the Thebans' own. 79.2. If, then, this man had lived a longer time, by common acknowledgement the Thebans would have acquired, in addition to the leadership by land, the rule of the sea; but since a little time later, in the battle about Mantinea, having won for his fatherland a most brilliant victory, he died heroically, immediately also the affairs of the Thebans died together with his death. But concerning these things we shall set forth the particulars accurately a little later. 79.3. At that time it seemed best to the Thebans to campaign against Orchomenus for some such causes as these. Certain of the exiles, wishing to change the constitution at Thebes into an aristocratic order, persuaded the horsemen of the Orchomenians, being three hundred, to share in the undertaking. 79.4. These, being accustomed to meet with the Thebans on an appointed day for the review under arms, agreed to make the attack on this. Many others sharing in the design and rushing forward, they met at the appointed time. 79.5. Those who had constituted the deed, repenting, made the attack known to the boeotarchs, betraying their fellow-conspirators, and through this service procured for themselves safety. The magistrates seizing the horsemen of the Orchomenians and bringing them into the assembly, the people voted to slaughter these and to enslave the Orchomenians and raze the city. For from ancient times the Thebans were ill disposed toward these, having paid tribute to the Minyae in the heroic times, and later having been freed by Heracles. 79.6. The Thebans, then, thinking they had an opportunity and having taken plausible pretexts for vengeance, campaigned against Orchomenus; mastering the city, they slew the men, and enslaved the children and women. 80.1. About the same times the Thessalians, being at war with Alexander the tyrant of Pherae, and being defeated in several battles and having lost many of their soldiers, sent envoys to the Thebans, asking them to help them and to send out Pelopidas as their general. For they knew this man, because of the arrest by Alexander, to be most ill disposed toward the ruler, and at the same time distinguished in valour and renowned for generalship's understanding. 80.2. The common assembly of the Boeotians being gathered, and the envoys having discoursed about the things of which they had instructions, the Boeotians granted everything to the Thessalians, and giving to Pelopidas up to seven thousand soldiers, ordered him to help quickly those who asked; but as Pelopidas was quickly going out with the force, it came to pass that the sun was eclipsed. 80.3. Many being suspicious of what had occurred, certain of the seers declared that because of the going out of the soldiers the sun of the city had been eclipsed. And through these words foretelling the death of Pelopidas, nonetheless Pelopidas broke camp for the campaign, being led by fate. 80.4. When he came to Thessaly and found Alexander having forestalled him in occupying the commanding positions and having more than twenty thousand soldiers, he encamped against the enemy, and taking on allies from the Thessalians joined battle with his opponents. 80.5. Alexander, because of the superiority of the places, having the advantage, Pelopidas, eager to decide the battle through his own valour, rushed against Alexander himself. The ruler withstanding with his chosen men, a fierce battle took place, in which Pelopidas, fighting bravely, strewed all the place about him with corpses; and at last, ending the danger and routing the enemy, he won the victory, but lost his own life, falling in with many wounds and giving up his life heroically.

80.6. Alexander, defeated in a second battle and crushed entirely, was compelled by agreement to give back to the Thessalians the cities he had subdued, and to deliver over the Magnetes and the Phthiotic Achaeans to the Boeotians, and for the rest, ruling Pherae alone, to be an ally to the Boeotians. 81.1. The Thebans, having carried off a renowned victory, said to all that they had been defeated because of the death of Pelopidas; for having lost a considerable man, they reasonably judged the victory to be less than the life of Pelopidas. For he had rendered many and great services to his fatherland, and contributed most to the increase of the Thebans. For in the return of the exiles, in which they recovered the Cadmeia, by common acknowledgement all assign to him the first place in the success. And this success came to be the cause of all the goods that occurred afterward. 81.2. In the battle about Tegyra Pelopidas alone of the boeotarchs conquered the Lacedaemonians, who were strongest of the Greeks, when, because of the magnitude of the victory, the Thebans first set up a trophy over the Lacedaemonians. In the battle at Leuctra he led the sacred band, with which, charging first against the Spartans, he became the author of the victory. In the campaigns against Lacedaemon he led seventy thousand, and by Sparta itself he set up a trophy over the Lacedaemonians, who all the time before had been unravaged. 81.3. Sending an embassy to the King of the Persians, in the common agreements he secured Messene privately, which, being desolate for three hundred years, the Thebans restored. At the end, fighting it out against Alexander, who had a force many times greater, he not only conspicuously conquered, but also had a death renowned for valour. 81.4. Toward the citizens he was so well disposed that from the return of the exiles to Thebes until his own death he continued boeotarch all the time, no other of the citizens having been deemed worthy of this honour. Pelopidas, then, having been deemed worthy of acceptance by all because of his own virtue, let him have also from us the praise through history. 81.5. About the same times Clearchus, being by descent from Heraclea on the Pontus, attempted a tyranny; mastering his undertaking, he emulated the way of life of Dionysius the tyrant of the Syracusans, and being tyrant of the Heracleotes ruled conspicuously twelve years. 81.6. At the same time as these things were being done, Timotheus the general of the Athenians, having an infantry and naval force, besieged and took Torone and Potidaea, and helped the Cyzicenes, who were being besieged.

82.1. This year having passed, at Athens the archon was Charicleides, and at Rome were appointed as consuls Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Lucius Sextius Lateranus. In this year the Arcadians with the Pisatans had jointly held the contest of the Olympics, and were masters of the temple and the money in it. The Mantineans having taken into their private uses not a few of the dedications, those who had committed the lawlessness were eager to keep on the war against the Eleians, that they might not in peace give an account of what had been spent. 82.2. The other Arcadians wishing to conclude the peace, they stirred up factions against their countrymen. Two parties arising, it came to pass that the one had the Tegeates as leaders, the other the Mantineans. 82.3. The difference being greatly increased, they came to the decision by arms, and the Tegeates, sending an embassy to the Boeotians, persuaded them to help; the Boeotians, appointing Epaminondas general and giving him a considerable force, sent him out to help the Tegeates. 82.4. The Mantineans, struck with dismay at the force from Boeotia and the reputation of Epaminondas, sending envoys to the bitterest enemies of the Boeotians, the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, persuaded them to ally themselves. Both quickly sending strong forces, many and great contests arose in the Peloponnese. 82.5. Immediately, then, the Lacedaemonians, dwelling near, campaigned into Arcadia, while Epaminondas at this time, advancing with the force and being not far from Mantinea, learned from the natives that the Lacedaemonians in full force were ravaging the country of the Tegeates. 82.6. Supposing, then, that Sparta was empty of soldiers, he undertook to accomplish some great thing, but had fortune working against him. For he himself set out by night against Sparta, but the king of the Lacedaemonians, Agis, suspecting the quickness of wit of Epaminondas, prudently guessed the future, and sent certain Cretan day-runners, through whom, forestalling Epaminondas, he made known to those left in Sparta that the Boeotians would shortly come against Lacedaemon to plunder the city, and that he himself, as quickly as he could, would come with the force to help his fatherland. He bade those in Sparta guard the city, struck with dismay at nothing; for quickly he would appear and help. 83.1. The Cretans quickly doing what was ordered, unexpectedly the Lacedaemonians escaped the capture of their fatherland; for, the attack not being foretold, Epaminondas would have burst into Sparta unobserved. The device of both generals one might justly approve, but might consider the generalship of the Laconian the more prudent. 83.2. Nevertheless, Epaminondas, having stayed awake the whole night and hastily accomplished the distance of the road, at daybreak advanced against Sparta. Agesilaus, who had been left on guard, having a little before heard the particulars from the Cretans, immediately with much zeal took care of the city. 83.3. The eldest of the boys and the aged he sent up onto the roofs of the houses, and ordered them from these to defend against those who forced their way into the city, while he himself, arraying those in the prime of their ages, divided them into the difficult places and passes before the city, and blocking all the places able to receive a passage, awaited the onset of the enemy. 83.4. Epaminondas, dividing the soldiers into several parts and falling upon every place at the same time, when he saw the array of the Spartans, immediately knew that the deed had been betrayed; nevertheless, fighting against all in detail and being at a disadvantage in the difficult places, he came to close quarters. 83.5. Suffering and doing much, he did not desist from his ambition, until the army of the Lacedaemonians returned to Sparta; many coming to the aid of the besieged, and night coming on, he raised the siege. 84.1. Learning from the prisoners that the Mantineans in full force were present helping the Lacedaemonians, then, withdrawing a little from the city, he encamped; and ordering them to make their supper, leaving some of the horsemen, he ordered these until the morning watch to burn fires in the camp, while he himself, setting out with the force, hastened suddenly to fall upon those left in Mantinea. 84.2. On the next day, having accomplished a long road, he suddenly and unexpectedly dashed against the Mantineans, yet did not master his undertaking, although he had forethought everything by generalship, but, having fortune working against him, unexpectedly lost the victory. For just as he was drawing near the city, empty of men, there came to the other side of Mantinea the soldiers sent by the Athenians for the alliance, being six thousand, having as general Hegesileus, a man at that time praised among the citizens. This man, bringing the sufficient men into the city, drew up the rest of the force as if to be decided by battle. 84.3. Immediately also the Lacedaemonians and Mantineans appeared, and all prepared for the decision about the whole and sent for their allies from everywhere. 84.4. To the Mantineans, then, there came to help the Eleians and Lacedaemonians and Athenians and certain others, of whom the whole number was foot more than twenty thousand, and horse about two thousand; while with the Tegeates were allied the most and best of the Arcadians and Achaeans and Boeotians and Argives and certain others of the Peloponnesians and of the allies from outside; and all were gathered, foot above thirty thousand, and horse not fewer than three thousand.

85.1. Both sides eagerly going down to the contest about the whole, and the armies being drawn up, the seers on both sides, having sacrificed, declared that the victory was foreshown by the gods. 85.2. In the array the Mantineans with the other Arcadians held the right wing, having as comrades and fellow-fighters the Lacedaemonians, and continuous with these were the Eleians and Achaeans, and of the others the inferior held the middle array; the left wing the Athenians filled. The Thebans themselves were stationed on the left wing, having the Arcadians as comrades, and the right they gave to the Argives; the rest of the multitude filled the middle array, Euboeans and Locrians and Sicyonians, and besides these Messenians and Malians and Aenianians, and besides Thessalians and the rest of the allies. The horsemen on each of the wings both sides divided. 85.3. The armies being arrayed in this manner, when they were now near one another, the trumpets signalled the battle-cry, and the forces raised the war-shout and by the magnitude of the shout signalled the victory. And at first they constituted a cavalry battle on the wings, in which they surpassed one another in their rivalries. 85.4. For the horsemen of the Athenians, riding against those of the Thebans, were worsted, not so much by the excellences of the horses nor by their own courage nor by their experience in horsemanship—for in all these the cavalry of the Athenians was not inferior—but in the multitude and equipment of the light-armed and in the generalship's array they fell far behind their opponents. For they themselves had few javelin-throwers, while the Thebans had three times as many slingers and javelin-throwers sent from the regions about Thessaly. 85.5. These, having from childhood especially emulated the battle in these, were accustomed to make a great turn in battles because of their experience in them. Therefore the Athenians, being wounded by the light-armed and worn down by their opponents, all turned to flight. 85.6. Making their flight outside the wings, they corrected the defeat; for, in their withdrawal, they at once did not throw their own phalanx into disorder, and at the same time, falling in with Euboeans and certain mercenaries sent to seize the nearby hills, joining battle with them they slew them all. 85.7. The horsemen of the Thebans did not pursue the fleeing, but riding against the phalanx of those arrayed against them, were ambitious to outflank the infantry. A fierce battle taking place, and the Athenians being worn down and rushing to flight, the cavalry-commander of the Eleians, stationed in the rearguard, came to the aid of the fleeing, and laying low many of the Boeotians turned the battle the other way. 85.8. The horsemen of the Eleians, then, having in this manner appeared on the left wing, corrected the defeat that had occurred to the allies; while on the other wing, the horsemen dashing against one another, the battle remained for a brief time even, but after this, through the multitude and the valour of the Boeotian and Thessalian horsemen, those with the Mantineans were forced back, and losing many fled to their own phalanx. 86.1. The cavalry battle on both sides, then, had such an end; but the infantry forces, when they came to close quarters with the enemy, constituted great and wonderful contests. For never, when Greeks fought against Greeks, was so great a multitude of men arrayed, nor were there leaders more notable in their dignities, nor men more capable in displaying their bravery in dangers. 86.2. For those most able to fight on foot at the times in question, the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians, standing against one another in the array, first joined battle, making no sparing of life. And at first striking one another with their spears, and because of the density of the blows breaking most of them, they came to the contest of the sword. 86.3. Grappling with their bodies and working all manner of dispositions of wounds, they did not in their fury cease; and for a long time holding out in the terrors, because of the excess of the bravery on both sides, the battle took no turn; for each, despising to suffer anything terrible, and eager to do something brilliant, nobly received death for the sake of glory. 86.4. The battle being fierce for a long time and the danger taking no turn, Epaminondas, supposing that the victory required his own valour, resolved to decide the danger through himself. Immediately, then, taking up the best and with these locking shields together, he charged into the midst of the enemy; leading the way of his battalion, and first hurling his javelin, he struck the leader of the Lacedaemonians. 86.5. Immediately, as the others too came to close quarters, slaying some and striking dismay into others, he broke through the phalanx of the enemy. The Lacedaemonians, struck with dismay at the dignity of Epaminondas and the weight of the battalion about him, withdrew from the battle; the Boeotians pressing upon them and ever slaying the hindmost, a multitude of corpses was heaped up.

87.1. The Lacedaemonians, seeing Epaminondas pressing forward too eagerly in his fury, ran together against him. Many and thick missiles being hurled, some he avoided, some he warded off, and some, pulling out of his body, with these he defended against the assailants. Fighting heroically for the victory, he received a mortal blow in the breast. The spear being broken, and the iron left in his body, he immediately fell, overcome by the blow. A rivalry arising about the body, and many being slain on both sides, with difficulty the Thebans, surpassing in the strength of their bodies, wore down the Lacedaemonians. 87.2. A flight occurring, the Boeotians, pursuing for a brief time, turned back, considering it most necessary to become masters of the dead. The trumpeters recalling the soldiers, all desisted from the battle, and both sides, setting up trophies, disputed the victory. 87.3. For the Athenians, having conquered the Euboeans and mercenaries about the hill, were masters of the dead, while the Boeotians, having defeated the Lacedaemonians by force and being masters of those who had fallen, assigned the victory to themselves. 87.4. For some time, then, neither side sent an embassy about the taking up of the dead, lest they should seem to give up the first place; but after this, the Lacedaemonians first sending a herald about the taking up of the dead, both sides buried their own. 87.5. Epaminondas, still living, was carried to the camp, and the physicians who were summoned declaring that wholly, when the spear was drawn out of his breast, it would come to pass that death would follow, he made the end of his life most courageously. 87.6. For first, summoning his shield-bearer, he asked whether he had saved the shield. He saying yes and placing it before his sight, he asked again which side had conquered. The boy declaring that the Boeotians had conquered, "It is time," he said, "to die," and ordered them to draw out the spear. His friends present crying out, and one of them saying, "You die childless, Epaminondas," and weeping, "No, by Zeus," he said, "but I leave behind two daughters, the victory at Leuctra and that at Mantinea." And the spear being drawn out, without any disturbance he breathed his last. 88.1. We, being accustomed to add to the ends of good men their own praise, in no way think it fitting to pass over unmarked the death of so great a man. For he seems to me to have surpassed not only those of his own time in generalship's understanding and experience, but besides this in fairness and magnanimity. 88.2. For during the age of this man there have been notable men, Pelopidas the Theban and Timotheus and Conon, and besides Chabrias and Iphicrates the Athenians, and besides these Agesilaus the Spartan, a little earlier in time; and in the times before, in the days of the Median and before the Persian times, Solon and Themistocles and Miltiades, and besides Cimon and Myronides and Pericles and certain others among the Athenians, and in Sicily Gelon the son of Deinomenes and certain others. 88.3. But nevertheless, if one should compare the virtues of these with the generalship and reputation of Epaminondas, one would find the virtue about Epaminondas far surpassing. For in each of the others one would find a single superiority of reputation, but in this man all the virtues gathered. For in strength of body and cleverness of speech, and besides in brilliance of soul and hatred of money and fairness, and the greatest thing, in valour and generalship's understanding, he far excelled all. 88.4. Therefore his fatherland, while he lived, acquired the leadership of Greece, but at his death was deprived of it and made trial of an ever-worsening change, and at last, through the folly of its leaders, made trial of enslavement and razing. Epaminondas, then, having a virtue renowned among all, met with such an end of life.

89.1. The Greeks, after the battle having the victory disputed, and being matched in bravery, and besides worn down by the continuity of the dangers, were reconciled with one another. Concluding a common peace and alliance, they ranged in the alliance also the Messenians. 89.2. The Lacedaemonians, because of their irreconcilable estrangement toward these, did not choose to share in the treaties, and alone of the Greeks remained excluded from the treaty. 89.3. Of the historians, Xenophon the Athenian closed his work on Greek affairs at this year, at the death of Epaminondas; and Anaximenes of Lampsacus wrote the first of his Greek histories, beginning from theogony and from the first race of men, and closed at the battle of Mantinea and the death of Epaminondas; he embraced almost all the deeds both of the Greeks and barbarians in twelve books. And Philistus thus closed his work concerning Dionysius the younger, traversing five years in two books. 90.1. In the archonship at Athens of Molon, at Rome were appointed as consuls Lucius Genucius and Quintus Servilius. In this year those dwelling on the coast of Asia revolted from the Persians, and certain of the satraps and generals, rising up, brought war upon Artaxerxes. 90.2. Likewise to these also Tachos the king of the Egyptians, resolving to make war on the Persians, both constructed ships and gathered infantry forces. Enlisting many mercenaries from the Greek cities, he persuaded also the Lacedaemonians to ally; for the Spartans were ill disposed toward Artaxerxes because the Messenians, like the other Greeks, had been ranged by the King in the common peace. So great a concourse occurring against the Persians, the King too prepared the things for the war. 90.3. For at the same time he had to make war both against the king of the Egyptians and against the Greek cities in Asia and the Lacedaemonians and their allied satraps and generals, who ruled the maritime regions and had agreed on a common undertaking; of whom the most notable were Ariobarzanes the satrap of Phrygia, who, Mithridates having died, had become master of his kingdom; Mausolus ruling Caria and master of many strongholds and notable cities, of which the hearth and mother-city was Halicarnassus, having a considerable citadel and the royal seat of Caria; and besides these Orontes the satrap of Mysia, and Autophradates of Lydia; and of the Ionians, besides, Lycians and Pisidians and Pamphylians and Cilicians, and besides Syrians and Phoenicians and almost all the maritime peoples. 90.4. So great a revolt occurring, half the revenues of the King had been cut off, and the rest was not sufficient for the needs of the war. 91.1. Those who had revolted from the King chose Orontes as general for the management of the whole. He, taking over the command and money for enlistment, the annual pay for twenty thousand soldiers, became a betrayer of those who trusted him. For supposing that from the King he would obtain great gifts and would take over the satrapy of the whole coast if he should hand over the rebels to the Persians, first he seized those who had brought the money and sent them to Artaxerxes, and after this he handed over many of the cities and the enlisted soldiers to the leaders sent by the King. 91.2. Likewise to this also in Cappadocia there occurred a betrayal, in which something peculiar and paradoxical came to pass. For Artabazus the general of the King invading Cappadocia with a large force, the satrap of this country, Datames, encamped against him, having gathered many horsemen and having twenty thousand mercenary foot campaigning with him; 91.3. but the son-in-law of Datames, leading the horsemen, wishing to lay up a favour and at the same time providing for his own safety, revolting by night with the horsemen, rode off to the enemy, having agreed with Artabazus the day before about the betrayal. 91.4. Datames, exhorting the mercenaries and promising gifts, set out against the rebels. Finding them already coming to close quarters with the enemy, he himself, falling on together with the men of Artabazus and the horsemen, slew those who came to close quarters. 91.5. Artabazus, at first not knowing the truth, but supposing the man who had revolted from Datames to be making a counter-betrayal, ordered his own men to slay the approaching horsemen. Mithrobarzanes, caught in the middle, the one side defending against him as a traitor and the other punishing him as a counter-traitor, was in helplessness; the helplessness not allowing deliberation, he turned to fighting, and fighting against both made much slaughter. At last, more than ten thousand being slain, Datames, routing the survivors and slaying many, recalled by the trumpet the pursuing soldiers. 91.6. Of the surviving horsemen, some, withdrawing to Datames, asked to obtain pardon, while the rest kept quiet, having nowhere to turn, and at last, being about five hundred, surrounded by Datames, were shot down. 91.7. Datames, then, admired before for generalship, then had the more renowned both his valour and his understanding in generalship; but the King Artaxerxes, learning the generalship of Datames and eager to make away with him, treacherously slew him through a plot.

92.1. At the same time as these things were being done, Rheomithres, sent by the rebels to Egypt to King Tachos, and receiving five hundred talents of silver and fifty warships, sailed in Asia to the place called Leucae. Sending for to this city many of the leaders of the rebels, these he seized and bound and sent up to Artaxerxes, while he himself, having become a rebel, by the gifts from his betrayal settled his affairs with the King. 92.2. In Egypt Tachos the king, having prepared the things for the war, had two hundred triremes lavishly adorned, and chosen mercenaries from Greece, ten thousand, and apart from these eighty thousand Egyptian infantry soldiers. The command of the mercenaries he gave to Agesilaus the Spartan, sent by the Lacedaemonians for the alliance with a thousand hoplites, and able to lead soldiers and admired both for valour and generalship's understanding; 92.3. and the generalship of the fleet he entrusted to Chabrias the Athenian, not sent publicly by his fatherland, but privately persuaded by the king to campaign with him. He himself, having the command of the Egyptians and being general of the whole force, did not heed Agesilaus, who advised remaining in Egypt and managing the war through his generals, although he advised well. For the force having advanced further and encamping about Phoenicia, the general appointed over Egypt revolted from the king, and sending word to the king's son Nectanebos and persuading him to lay hold of the kingdom in Egypt, kindled a great war; 92.4. for Nectanebos, appointed by the king leader of the soldiers from Egypt, and sent from Phoenicia to besiege the cities in Syria, becoming agreeable to the designs of his father, urging the leaders by gifts and the soldiers by promises, persuaded them to become fellow-fighters. 92.5. At last, Egypt being seized by the rebels, Tachos, struck with dismay, dared to go up through Arabia to the King, and asked to be given pardon for his offences; and Artaxerxes not only released him from the charges, but also appointed him general of the war against the Egyptians. 93.1. A little later the King of the Persians died, having ruled forty-three years, and the kingdom was succeeded by Ochus, who was renamed Artaxerxes, and he reigned twenty-three years; for, Artaxerxes having reigned nobly and become wholly peaceful and fortunate, they renamed those who reigned after him and ordered them to have his appellation. 93.2. King Tachos having returned to Agesilaus and his men, Nectanebos, having gathered more than ten myriads of soldiers, came against Tachos, and challenged him to fight it out for the kingdom. Agesilaus, seeing the king struck with dismay and not daring to risk it, exhorted him to take courage; for the victory comes not to those superior in multitude, but to those first in bravery; but he not heeding, Agesilaus was compelled to make his withdrawal with him to a certain large city. 93.3. The Egyptians at first besieged those shut up; but when they lost many in the assaults on the walls, they enclosed the city with a wall and a trench. The works being quickly completed because of the multitude of hands, and the provisions being exhausted, Tachos despaired of safety, but Agesilaus, exhorting the soldiers and attacking the enemy by night, unexpectedly saved all the soldiers. 93.4. The Egyptians pursuing, and the places being level, the Egyptians supposed that by their multitude they had surrounded the enemy and would utterly destroy all; but Agesilaus, seizing a place which had on each side an artificial canal of a river, awaited the onset of the enemy. 93.5. Arraying the force appropriately to the places, and fortifying the army by the streams of the river, he joined battle. The multitude of the Egyptians being useless, the Greeks, surpassing in their virtues, slew many of the Egyptians and forced the rest to flee. 93.6. After this Tachos easily recovered the kingdom in Egypt, and Agesilaus, as alone having set right the kingdom, was honoured with fitting gifts. Returning to his fatherland through Cyrene, he died, and his body being conveyed in honey to Sparta, he obtained royal burial and honour. And the affairs in Asia advanced up to this point in this year. 94.1. In the Peloponnese, a common peace having come for the Arcadians after the battle at Mantinea, they remained by their oaths only a year and again established the war. For in the oaths it had been written that each should depart to his own fatherland after the battle, but into Megalopolis the surrounding cities had been removed and were bearing ill the removal from their fatherland. Therefore, when these returned to their former cities, the Megalopolitans tried to compel them to leave their fatherlands. 94.2. A difference arising for this cause, those from the small towns asked the Mantineans and certain of the other Arcadians to help them, and besides the Eleians and the others who had shared in the alliance with the Mantineans; while the Megalopolitans called upon the Thebans to ally themselves. These quickly sent three thousand hoplites and three hundred horse, of whom Pammenes had the generalship. 94.3. He, coming to Megalopolis, and of the small towns plundering some and striking dismay into others, compelled them to remove to Megalopolis. And the affairs about the union of the cities, having come to such a degree of disturbance, met with a settlement as far as was possible. 94.4. Of the historians, Athanas the Syracusan, beginning from here the deeds about Dion, wrote thirteen books, and in one book took up beforehand the unrecorded time of seven years from the work of Philistus, and traversing the deeds in summary made his history continuous.

95.1. In the archonship at Athens of Nicophemus, the consular office at Rome was held by Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Licinius. In this year Alexander the tyrant of Pherae, sending piratical ships against the Cyclades islands, took some by siege and gained possession of many persons, and, disembarking mercenary soldiers at Peparethos, besieged the city. 95.2. The Athenians coming to the aid of the Peparethians, and leaving Leosthenes as general, he attacked the Athenians; these happened to be watching those of Alexander's soldiers staying at Panormus. The men of the ruler attacking unexpectedly, a paradoxical success came about for Alexander. For not only did he save those sent to Panormus from the greatest dangers, but he also took five Attic triremes and one Peparethian, and gained possession of six hundred persons. 95.3. The Athenians, provoked, condemned Leosthenes to death as a traitor and confiscated his property, and choosing Chares general and giving him a naval force, sent him out. He continued, on the one hand being on his guard against the enemy, and on the other wronging the allies. For sailing to Corcyra, an allied city, he stirred up great factions in it, from which it came to pass that there were many slaughters and plunderings, through which it happened that the people of the Athenians were slandered among the allies. Chares, then, committing other such lawless deeds, accomplished nothing good, but slanders for his fatherland. 95.4. Of the historians, Dionysodorus and Anaxis the Boeotians closed their works on Greek history at this year. We, having traversed the deeds before Philip the king, in accordance with our purpose at the beginning conclude this book here, and the following one, beginning from the accession of Philip to the kingdom, we shall go through all the deeds of this king down to his death, including also the other deeds that occurred in the known parts of the inhabited world.