No More Learning

11 Some days afterwards, an engagement took place by sea; and the Lacedaemonians, being worsted, fled. 12 Nevertheless they did not cease from fierce attacks on one another, by sea or land, with various success. 13 At last, exhausted with disasters on both sides, they made peace for fifty years, which however they maintained only for six; 14 for they broke the treaty which they had concluded on their own account, under pretence of assisting their allies; 15 as if they were less guilty of perjury by aiding their dependants, than by engaging in open hostilities themselves.

16 The war was in consequence transferred into Sicily; but before I relate its progress, it is proper to give some account of the situation of that island.

BOOK 4

[4. 1] L It is said that Sicily was formerly joined to Italy by a narrow pass, and was torn off, as it were, from the larger body, by the violence of the upper sea, which impels itself in that direction with the whole force of its waters. 2 The soil itself, too, is light and frangible, and so perforated with caverns and passages, that it is almost everywhere open to blasts of wind; 3 and the very matter of it is naturally adapted for generating and nourishing fire, as it is said to be impregnated with sulphur and bitumen, 4 a circumstance which is the cause that when air contends with fire in the subterraneous parts, the earth frequently, and in several places, sends forth flame, or vapour, or smoke. 5 Hence it is that the fire of Mount Aetna has lasted through so many ages. 6 And when a strong wind passes in through the openings of the cavities, heaps of sand are cast up.

7 The promontory of Italy on the side nearest to Sicily, is called Rhegium, because "things broken off" are designated by that word in Greek. 8 Nor is it strange that antiquity should have been full of fables concerning these parts, in which so many extraordinary things are found together. 9 The sea, in the first place, is nowhere so impetuous, pouring on with a current not only rapid but furious, not only frightful to those who feel its effects, but to those who view it from a distance. 10 So fierce is the conflict of the waves as they meet, that you may see some of them, put to flight as it were, sink down into the depths, and others, as if victorious, rising up to the skies. Sometimes, in one part, you may hear the roaring of the sea as it boils up; and again, in another part, the groaning of it as it sinks into a whirlpool. 11 Next are to be observed the adjacent and everlasting fires of Mount Aetna and the Aeolian islands, which burn as if their heat were nourished by the sea itself; 12 nor indeed could such a quantity of fire have endured in such narrow bounds for so many ages unless it were supported by nourishment from the water. 13 Hence fables produced Scylla and Charybdis; hence barkings were thought to have been heard; hence the appearances of monsters gained credit, as the sailors, frightened at the vast whirlpools of the subsiding waters, imagined that the waves, which the vortex of the absorbent gulf clashes together, actually barked. 14 The same cause makes the fires of Mount Aetna perpetual; 15 for the shock of the waters forces into the depths a portion of air hurried along with it, and then keeps it confined till, being diffused through the pores of the earth, it kindles the matter which nourishes the fire.

16 In addition, the proximity of Italy and Sicily is to be noticed, with the heights of their respective promontories, which are so similar, that, whatever wonder they raise in us in the present day, they excited proportionate terror in the ancients, who believed that whole ships were intercepted and destroyed by the promontories closing together and opening. 17 Nor was this invented by the ancients to gratify the hearer with a fabulous wonder, but occasioned by the terror and consternation of those who passed by those parts; 18 for such is the appearance of the coasts to any one beholding them from a distance, that you would take the passage between them for a bay in the sea, and not a strait; and, as you draw nearer, you would think that the promontories, which were before united, part asunder and separate.

[4. 2] L At first Sicily had the name of Trinacria; afterwards it was called Sicania. 2 It was originally the abode of the Cyclops; when they became extinct, Cocalus made himself ruler of the island. 3 After his time the cities fell severally under the dominion of tyrants, of whom no country was more productive. 4 One of them, Anaxilaus, strove to be as just as the others were cruel, and reaped no small advantage from his equity; 5 for having left, at his death, some sons very young, and having committed the guardianship of them to Micythus, a slave of tried fidelity, so great was the respect paid to his memory among all his subjects, that they chose rather to submit to a slave than to abandon the king's children; and the noblemen of the state, forgetful of their dignity, suffered the authority of government to be exercised by a slave. 6 The Carthaginians, too, attempted to gain the sovereignty of Sicily, and fought against the tyrants for a long time with various success; 7 but at length, after losing their general Hamilcar and his army, they remained quiet for some time in consequence of that defeat.

[4. 3] L In the meantime, the people of Rhegium being troubled with dissension, and the city being divided by disputes into two factions, a body of veteran soldiers from Himera, who were invited by one of the parties to their assistance, having first expelled from the city those against whom they had been called, and then put to the sword those whom they had come to aid, took the government into their own hands, and made prisoners of the wives and children of their allies; 2 venturing upon an atrocity to which that of no tyrant can be compared; so that it would have been better for the Rhegians to have been conquered than to conquer; 3 for whether they had become slaves to their conquerors by the laws of war, or, withdrawing from their country, had been necessitated to live in exile, yet they would not have been butchered amidst their altars and household gods, and have left their country, with their wives and children, a prey to the most cruel of tyrants.

4 The people of Catana, also, finding themselves oppressed by the Syracusans, and distrusting their own power to withstand them, requested assistance from the Athenians, 5 who, whether from desire of enlarging their dominions, so that they might master all Greece and Asia, or from apprehension of a fleet lately built by the Syracusans, and to prevent such a force from joining the Lacedaemonians, sent Lamponius, as general, with a naval armament into Sicily, that under pretence of assisting the people of Catana, they might endeavour to secure the sovereignty of the whole island. 6 Having succeeded in their first attempts, and made havoc among the enemy on several occasions, they despatched another expedition to Sicily, with a greater fleet and more numerous army, under the command of Laches and Chariades. 7 But the people of Catana, whether from fear of the Athenians, or from being weary of the war, made peace with the Syracusans, and sent back the Athenian force that had come to assist them.

[4. 4] L After a lapse of some time, however, as the articles of the peace were not observed by the Syracusans, they sent ambassadors a second time to Athens, who, arriving in a mean dress, with long hair and beards, and every sign of distress adapted to move pity, presented themselves in that wretched plight before the public assembly. 2 To their entreaties were added tears; and the suppliants so moved the people to compassion, that the commanders who had withdrawn the auxiliary force from them received a sentence of condemnation. 3 A powerful fleet was then appointed to aid them; Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lamachus were made captains; and Sicily was revisited with such a force as was a terror even to those to whose aid it was sent. 4 In a short time, Alcibiades being recalled to answer certain charges made against him, Nicias and Lamachus fought two successful battles by land, 5 and, drawing lines of circumvallation around Syracuse, cut off all supplies from the enemy by sea, keeping them closely blocked up in the city. 6 The Syracusans, being greatly reduced by these measures, sought assistance from the Lacedaemonians, 7 by whom Gylippus alone was sent; but he was a man equal to whole troops of auxiliaries. 8 He, having heard on his way of the perilous state of the war, and having collected some support partly from Greece and partly from Sicily, took possession of some posts suitable for carrying on the war. 9 He was then conquered in two battles, but engaging in a third, he killed Lamachus, put the enemy to flight, and rescued his allies from the siege. 10 But as the Athenians transferred their warlike efforts from the land to the sea, Gylippus sent for a fleet and army from Lacedaemon; 11 upon intelligence of which the Athenians themselves, too, sent out Demosthenes and Eurymedon, in place of their late leader, with a reinforcement to their troops. 12 The Peloponnesians again, by a general resolution of their cities, sent powerful assistance to the Syracusans, and, as if the Greek war had been transported into Sicily, the contest was pursued on both sides with the utmost vigour.

[4. 5] L In the first encounter at sea, the Athenians were worsted, and lost their camp, with all their money, both what was public and what belonged to private individuals. 2 When, in addition to these disasters, they were also beaten in a battle on land, Demosthenes began to advise that "they should quit Sicily, while their condition, though bad, was not yet desperate; 3 and that they should not persist in a war so inauspiciously commenced, as there were more considerable, and perhaps more unhappy wars, to be dreaded at home, for which it was expedient that they should reserve the present force of their city. " 4 But Nicias, whether from shame at his ill success, from fear of the resentment of his countrymen for the disappointment of their hopes, or from the impulse of destiny, contended for staying. 5 The war by sea was therefore renewed, and their thoughts turned from reflections on their previous ill-fortune to the hopes of a successful struggle, 6 but, through the unskilfulness of their leaders, who attacked the Syracusans when advantageously posted in a strait, they were easily overcome. 7 Their general, (? ) Eurymedon, was the first to fall, fighting bravely in the front of the battle; and thirty ships which he commanded were burnt. 8 Demosthenes and Nicias being also defeated, set their forces on shore, thinking that retreat would be safer by land. 9 Gylippus seized a hundred and thirty ships which they had left, and then, pursuing them as they fled, took some of them prisoners, and put others to death. 10 Demosthenes, after the loss of his troops saved himself from captivity by voluntarily falling on his sword. 11 But Nicias, not induced, even by the example of Demosthenes, to put himself out of the power of fortune, added to the loss of his army the disgrace of being made prisoner.

BOOK 5

[5. 1] L Whilst the Athenians, during two years, were carrying on the war in Sicily, with more eagerness than success, Alcibiades, the promoter and leader of it, was accused at Athens in his absence of having divulged the mysteries of Ceres, which were rendered sacred by nothing more than by their secrecy. 2 Being recalled from the war to take his trial, and being unwilling, either from the consciousness of guilt or from the affront put upon him, to obey, he retired, without offering to defend himself, to Elis. 3 From thence, having learned that he was not only condemned, but devoted to destruction with execrations in the religious ceremonies of all the priests, he betook himself to Lacedaemon, 4 where he urged the king of the Lacedaemonians to make war on the Athenians in the midst of their distress at the unfortunate result of the struggle in Sicily. 5 This being done, all the powers of Greece conspired against the Athenians, as if to extinguish a common conflagration; 6 such hatred had they brought upon themselves by their desire of too great power. 7 Darius also, the king of Persia, not forgetting his father's and grandfather's hostility to that city, concluded an alliance with the Lacedaemonians through Tissaphernes, satrap of Lydia, and promised to defray all the expense of the war. 8 Such at least was his pretext for meddling in the affairs of Greece, but in reality he was afraid that the Lacedaemonians, if they conquered the Athenians, should turn their arms against himself. 9 Who then can wonder that the flourishing state of Athens went to ruin, when the whole strength of the east conspired to overwhelm one city? 10 Yet they did not fall with merely a faint struggle, or without bloodshed, but fighting to the last, and sometimes victorious, being rather worn out by changes of fortune than overcome by force of arms. 11 At the commencement of the war, too, all their allies deserted them, according to common practice; for whatever way fortune leans, in the same direction does the favour of mankind turn.

[5. 2] L Alcibiades also supported the war raised against his country, not with the services of a common soldier, but with the abilities of a general. 2 Having received a squadron of five ships, he sailed directly to Asia, and, by the authority of his name, prevailed on the cities tributary to the Athenians to revolt from them. 3 They knew his eminence at home; nor did they think his influence weakened by his banishment, but looked on him rather as a leader taken from the Athenians, than added to the Lacedaemonians, and balanced the command which he had gained against that which he had lost. 4 But among the Lacedaemonians the abilities of Alcibiades had gained him more envy than favour; 5 and the chief men having formed a plot to kill him, as their rival in glory, Alcibiades, receiving intelligence of their design from the wife of Agis, with whom he had an intrigue, fled to Tissaphernes, the satrap of king Darius, with whom he quickly ingratiated himself by his affability and obligingness of manners. 6 He was then in the flower of youth, and distinguished for personal graces, and not less for oratory, even among the Athenians. 7 But he was better fitted to gain the affections of friends than to keep them; because the vices in his character were thrown into the shade by the splendour of his eloquence. 8 He succeeded in persuading Tissaphernes not to furnish such supplies of money for the Lacedaemonians' fleet; 9 "for the Ionians," he said, "should be called upon to pay their share, since it was for their deliverance, when they were paying tribute to the Lacedaemonians, that the war was undertaken. 10 Neither, however," he added, "should the Lacedaemonians be too greatly assisted; for he should remember that he was preparing a way for the supremacy of others, not for his own; and that the war was only so far to be supported, that it might not be broken off for want of supplies, 11 as the king of Persia, while the Greeks were distracted by dissensions, would be the arbiter of peace and war, and would vanquish with their own arms those whom he could not overcome with his own; but that, if the war were brought to a conclusion, he would immediately have to fight with the conquerors. 12 That Greece, therefore, ought to be reduced by civil wars, so that it might have no opportunity to engage in foreign ones; that the strength of its two parties should be kept equal, the weaker being constantly supported; 13 since the Spartans, who professed themselves the defenders of the liberty of Greece, would not remain quiet after their present elevation. " 14 Such arguments were very agreeable to Tissaphernes; and he accordingly furnished supplies to the Spartans but sparingly, and did not send the whole of the king's fleet to assist them, lest he should gain them a complete victory, or bring the other party under the necessity of abandoning the war.

[5. 3] L Meanwhile Alcibiades boasted of this service to his countrymen; 2 and when deputies from the Athenians came to him, he promised to secure them the king's friendship, if the government should be transferred from the hands of the people to those of the senate; 3 in hopes, either that, if the citizens could agree, he should be chosen general unanimously, or that, if dissension arose between the two orders, he should be invited by one of the parties to their assistance. 4 The Athenians, as a dangerous war hung over them, were more solicitous about their safety than their dignity. 5 The government, accordingly, was transferred, with the consent of the people, to the senate. 6 But as the nobility, with the pride natural to their order, treated the common people cruelly, and each arrogated to himself the exorbitant power of tyranny, the banished Alcibiades was recalled by the army, and appointed to the command of the fleet. 7 Upon this, he at once sent notice to Athens that, "he would instantly march to the city with his army, and recover the rights of the people from the four hundred, unless they restored them of themselves. " 8 The aristocracy, alarmed at this denunciation, at first attempted to betray the city to the Lacedaemonians, but being unable to succeed, went into exile. 9 Alcibiades, having delivered his country from this intestine evil, fitted out his fleet with the utmost care, and proceeded to carry forward the war with the Lacedaemonians.

[5. 4] L Mindarus and Pharnabazus, the leaders of the Lacedaemonians, were already waiting at Sestus with their fleet drawn up. 2 A battle being fought, the victory fell to the Athenians. In this engagement, the greater part of the army and almost all the enemy's officers, were killed, and eighty ships taken. 3 Some days after, the Lacedaemonians, transferring the war from the sea to the land, were defeated a second time. 4 Weakened by these disasters, they sued for peace, but were prevented from obtaining it by the efforts of those to whom the war brought private advantage. 5 In the meantime, too, a war made upon Sicily by the Carthaginians called home the aid sent by the Syracusans, 6 and the Lacedaemonians, in consequence, being wholly unsupported, Alcibiades ravaged the coast of Asia with his victorious fleet, fought several battles, and being everywhere victorious, recovered the cities which had revolted, took some others, and added them to the dominion of the Athenians. 7 Having thus re-established their ancient glory by sea, and united to it reputation in war by land, he returned to Athens to gratify the longing of his countrymen to behold him. 8 In all these battles two hundred ships of the enemy, and a vast quantity of spoils, were taken.

9 Upon this triumphant return of the army, the whole multitude from Athens poured forth to meet them, and gazed with admiration on all the soldiers, but especially on Alcibiades; 10 on him the whole city turned their eyes with looks of wonder; they regarded him as sent down from heaven, and as victory in person; 11 they extolled what he had done for his country, nor did they less admire what he had done against it in his exile, excusing his conduct as the result of anger and provocation. 12 Such power indeed, strange to say, was there in that one man, that he was the cause of a great state being subverted and again re-established; victory removed herself to the side on which he stood; and a wonderful change of fortune always attended him. 13 They therefore heaped upon him not only all human, but divine honours; they made it an object of contention, whether the contumely with which they banished him, or the honour with which they recalled him, should be the greater. 14 They, by whose execrations he had been devoted, carried their gods to meet and congratulate him; 15 and him to whom they had lately refused all human aid, they now desired, if they could, to exalt to heaven; 16 they made amends for indignities with praises, for confiscations with gifts, for imprecations with prayers. 17 The unfortunate battle on the coast of Sicily was no longer in their mouths, but their success in Greece; the fleets which he had lost were no more mentioned, but those which he had taken; they did not speak of Syracuse, but of Ionia and the Hellespont. 18 Thus Alcibiades was never received with moderate feelings on the part of his countrymen, either when they were offended, or when they were pleased with him.

[5. 5] L During these occurrences at Athens, Lysander was appointed by the Lacedaemonians to the command of their fleet and army; and Darius, king of Persia, made, in the room of Tissaphernes, his son Cyrus governor of Ionia and Lydia; who, by his assistance and support, inspired the Lacedaemonians with hopes of recovering their former position. 2 Their strength being therefore recruited, the Spartans, when their approach was wholly unexpected, surprised Alcibiades, who had gone with a hundred vessels to Asia, while he was laying waste the country, which was in excellent condition from a long continuance of peace, and while, unapprehensive of any attack, he had allowed his soldiers to disperse themselves under the attractions of plunder; 3 and such was the havoc among the scattered troops, that the Athenians received more injury from that single onslaught, than they had caused the enemy in their previous battles with them. 4 Such, too, was the desperation of the Athenians on the occasion, that they immediately deposed Alcibiades to make room for Conon, 5 thinking that they had been defeated, not by the fortune of war, but by the treachery of their general, on whom their former injuries had had more influence than their recent favours, 6 and that he had conquered in the former part of the war, only to show the enemy what a leader they had despised, and to make his countrymen pay so much the dearer for their previous victory; 7 for his vigour of mind and laxity of morals made everything that was said of Alcibiades credible. 8 Fearing therefore the rage of the people, he went again into voluntary exile.

[5. 6] L Conon, being put in the place of Alcibiades, and seeing to what sort of commander he had succeeded, fitted out his fleet with the utmost exertion; 2 but troops were wanting to man the vessels, as the stoutest men had been cut off in the plundering of Asia. 3 Old men, however, and boys under age, were furnished with arms, and the number of an army was completed, but without the strength. 4 But soldiers of an age so unfit for war could not long protract the contest; they were everywhere cut to pieces, or taken prisoners as they fled; 5 and so great was the loss in slain and captured, that not merely the power of the Athenians, but even their very name, seemed to be extinct. 6 Their affairs being ruined and rendered desperate in the contest, they were reduced to such want of men, all of military age being lost, that they gave the freedom of the city to foreigners, liberty to slaves, and pardon to condemned malefactors. With an army raised from such a mixture of human beings, they who had lately been lords of Greece could scarcely preserve their liberty. 7 Yet they resolved once more to try their fortune at sea; 8 and such was their spirit, that though they had recently despaired of safety, they now did not despair even of victory. 9 But it was not such a soldiery that could support the Athenian name; it was not such troops with which they had been used to conquer; nor were there the requisite military accomplishments in those whom prisons, not camps, had confined. All were in consequence either taken prisoners or slain; 10 and the general Conon alone surviving the battle, and dreading the resentment of his countrymen, went off with eight ships to Euagoras, king of Cyprus.

[5. 7] L The general of the Lacedaemonians, after managing his affairs so successfully, grew insolent towards his enemies in their evil fortune. He sent the ships which he had taken, laden with spoil, and decorated as in triumph, to Lacedaemon. 3 He received at the same time voluntary tenders of submission from cities which dread of the doubtful fortune of war had kept in allegiance to the Athenians. Nor did he leave anything in possession of the Athenians but their city itself.

4 When all this was understood at Athens, the inhabitants, leaving their houses, ran up and down the streets in a frantic manner, asking questions of one another, and inquiring for the author of the news. 5 Neither did incapacity keep the children at home, nor infirmity the old men, nor the weakness of their sex the women: so deeply had the feeling of such calamity affected every age. 6 They met together in the forum, where, through the whole night, they bewailed the public distress. 7 Some wept for their lost brothers, or sons, or parents; some for other relatives; others for friends dearer than relatives; all mingling their lamentations for their country with plaints for their private sufferings; 8 sometimes regarding themselves, sometimes their city, as on the brink of ruin; and deeming the fate of those who survived more unhappy than that of the slain. 9 Each represented to himself a siege, a famine, and an enemy overbearing and flushed with victory; 10 sometimes contemplating in imagination the desolation and burning of the city, and sometimes the captivity and wretched slavery of all its inhabitants; 11 and thinking the former destruction of Athens, which was attended only with the ruin of their houses, while their children and parents were safe, much less calamitous than what was now to befall them; 12 since there remained no fleet in which, as before, they might find a refuge, and no army by whose valour they might be saved to erect a finer city.

[5. 8] L While the city was thus wept over and almost brought to nothing, the enemy came upon it, pressed the inhabitants with a siege, and distressed them with famine. 2 They knew that little remained of the provisions which they had laid up, and had taken care that no new ones should be imported. 3 The Athenians, exhausted by their sufferings, from long endurance of famine, and daily losses of men, sued for peace; but it was long disputed between the Spartans and their allies whether it should be granted or not. 4 Many gave their opinion that the very name of the Athenians should be blotted out, and the city destroyed by fire; but the Spartans refused "to pluck out one of the two eyes of Greece," 5 and promised the Athenians peace, on condition ''that they should demolish the walls extending down to the Piraeus, and deliver up the ships which they had left; and that the state should receive from them thirty governors of their own citizens. " 6 The city being surrendered on these terms, the Lacedaemonians committed it to Lysander to model the government of it. 7 This year was rendered remarkable, not only for the reduction of Athens, but for the death of Darius, king of Persia, and the banishment of Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily.

8 When the form of government at Athens was changed, the condition of the citizens was likewise altered. 9 Thirty governors of the state were appointed, who became absolute tyrants; 10 for, at the very first, they organized for themselves a guard of three thousand men, though, after so much slaughter, scarcely as many citizens survived; 11 and as if this force was too small to overawe the city, they received also seven hundred men from the victorious army. 12 They then began to put to death the citizens, intending to commence with Alcibiades, lest he should again seize the government under pretence of delivering the city; 13 and hearing that he was gone to Artaxerxes king of Persia, they despatched men in haste to stop him on his way. 14 By these deputies he was beset, and, as he could not be killed openly, was burnt alive in the apartment in which he slept.

[5. 9] L The tyrants, thus freed from the dread of an avenger, wasted the miserable remains of the city with the sword and spoliation; 2 and finding that their proceedings displeased Theramenes, one of their own body, they put him also to death to strike terror into the rest. 3 In consequence a general dispersion of the citizens took place in all directions, and Greece was filled with Athenian fugitives. 4 But the privilege of flight being also taken from them (for the cities were forbidden, by an edict of the Lacedaemonians, to receive the exiles), they all betook themselves to Argos and Thebes, 5 where they had not only safe places of refuge, but also conceived hopes of repossessing themselves of their country. 6 There was among the refugees a man named Thrasybulus, a person of great bravery and of noble extraction, who, thinking that something should be attempted, even at the utmost hazard, for their country and the common interest, called together the exiles, and took post at Phyle, a fort on the borders of Attica. 7 Some of the cities, pitying the severity of their misfortunes, afforded them countenance; 8 Ismenias, a leading man among the Thebans, though he could not assist them publicly, yet supported them with his private means; 9 and Lysias, the Syracusan orator, at that time an exile, sent five hundred soldiers, equipped at his own charge, to the aid of the common country of eloquence. 10 A desperate battle ensued; but as those on the one side fought with their utmost efforts to regain their country, and those on the other, with less eagerness, in support of the power of others, the tyrants were overcome. 11 After their defeat they fled back into the city, which, already exhausted by their slaughters, they despoiled also of its arms. 12 Suspecting all the Athenians, too, of disaffection towards them, they ordered them to remove out of the city, and to take up their abode among the ruins of the walls which had been demolished; supporting their own authority with foreign soldiers. 13 Next they endeavoured to corrupt Thrasybulus, by promising him a share in the government; 14 but, not succeeding, they sought assistance from Lacedaemon, on the arrival of which they took the field again. 15 In this encounter Critias and Hippolochus, the two most cruel of the tyrants, were killed.

[5. 10] L The others being defeated, and their army, of which the greater part consisted of Athenians, running away, Thrasybulus called out to them with a loud voice, asking, "Why they should flee from him in the midst of victory, rather than join him as the assertor of their common liberty? " 2 adding, that "they should reflect that his army was composed of their countrymen, not of enemies; that he had not armed himself to take anything away from the conquered, but to restore them what they had lost; and that he was making war, not on the city, but on the thirty tyrants. " 3 He then reminded them of their ties of relationship, their laws, their common religion, and their long service as fellow soldiers in so many wars. He conjured them, that, "if they themselves could submit patiently to the yoke, they should yet take pity on their exiled countrymen;" he urged them "to restore him to his country, and to accept liberty for themselves. " 4 By these exhortations such an effect was produced, that when the army came back into the city, they ordered the thirty tyrants to retire to Eleusis, appointing ten commissioners to govern in their place; 5 who, however, not at all deterred by the fate of the former tyrants, entered on a similar career, of cruelty. 6 During the course of these proceedings, news arrived at Lacedaemon that war had broken out at Athens, and king Pausanias was sent to suppress it, 7 who, touched with compassion for the exiled people, restored the unhappy citizens to their country, and ordered the ten tyrants to leave the city, and go to the rest at Eleusis. 8 Peace was restored by these means; but, after an interval of some days, the tyrants, enraged at the recall of the exiles not less than at their own expulsion (as if liberty to others was slavery to themselves), suddenly resumed hostilities against Athens. 9 As they were proceeding however to a conference, apparently with the expectation of recovering their power, they were seized by an ambuscade, and offered as sacrifices to peace. The people, whom they had obliged to leave the city, were recalled; 10 and the state, which had been divided into several members, was at length re-united into one body. 11 And that no dissension might arise in consequence of anything that had gone before, the citizens were all bound by an oath that former discords should be forgotten.

12 Meanwhile the Thebans and Corinthians sent ambassadors to the Lacedaemonians, to demand a share of the spoil acquired by their common exertions in war, and at their common risk. 13 Their demand being refused, they did not indeed openly resolve on war with the Lacedaemonians, but tacitly conceived such resentment towards them, that it might be seen that war was likely to arise.

[5. 11] L About the same time died Darius, king of Persia, leaving two sons, Artaxerxes and Cyrus. 2 He bequeathed the kingdom to Artaxerxes, and to Cyrus the cities over which he had been satrap. 3 But Cyrus thought the will of his father an injustice, and secretly made preparations for war with his brother. 4 News of his intentions being brought to Artaxerxes, he sent for him, and, when he pretended innocence, and denied all thoughts of war, he bound him with golden fetters, and would have put him to death, had not his mother interposed. 5 Cyrus, in consequence of her intercession, being allowed to depart, began to prepare for war, no longer secretly, but publicly, not with dissimulation, but with an open avowal of it, and assembled auxiliary troops from all quarters. 6 The Lacedaemonians, remembering that they had been vigorously aided by him in the war with Athens, and as if in ignorance against whom hostilities were intended, resolved that "assistance should be sent to Cyrus whenever his necessities should require;" 7 hoping thus to secure favour with Cyrus, and a plea for pardon with Artaxerxes if he should have the advantage, because they had decreed nothing openly against him. 8 But when they came to an encounter, fortune throwing the brothers together in the field, Artaxerxes was first wounded by Cyrus, 9 but being rescued from danger by the speed of his horse, Cyrus was overpowered by the king's battalion, and slain. Thus Artaxerxes being victorious, got possession both of the spoil from the war with his brother, and of his brother's army. 10 In this battle there were ten thousand Greeks on the side of Cyrus, who had the superiority in the wing on which they had been posted, and, after the death of Cyrus, could neither be reduced forcibly by the vast army of their adversaries, nor captured by stratagem, 11 but, returning through so many wild and barbarous nations, and over such vast tracts of land, defended themselves by their valour till they gained the borders of their country.

BOOK 6

[6. 1] L The more the Lacedaemonians got, the more, according to the nature of mankind, they coveted, and, not satisfied at their strength being doubled by the accession of the Athenian power, they began to aspire to the dominion of all Asia. But the greater part of it was under the government of the Persians; 2 and Dercyllidas, being chosen general to conduct the war against them, and seeing that he would be opposed to two satraps of Artaxerxes, Pharnabazus and Tissaphernes, supported by the strength of powerful nations, resolved to make peace with one of them. 3 As Tissaphernes seemed the fitter of the two for his purpose, being more attentive to business, and better furnished with troops (having with him those of the late prince Cyrus), he was invited to a conference, and induced to lay down his arms on certain conditions. 4 This transaction Pharnabazus made matter of accusation to their common sovereign, acquainting him that "Tissaphernes had not taken arms to repel the Lacedaemonians on their invasion of Asia, but had maintained them at the king's charge, 5 and bargained with them as to what they should put off doing in the war, and what they should carry into execution, as if every loss did not affect the interest of the one empire in general," 6 adding that "it was disgraceful that war should not be decided by the sword, but bought off, and that the enemy should be induced to retire, not by arms, but by money. " 7 When by such charges he had irritated the king against Tissaphernes, he advised him to appoint in his place, as commander by sea, Conon the Athenian, who, having left his country on account of his ill success, was living in exile in Cyprus; 8 "for though the power of the Athenians," he said, "was reduced, their experience at sea was still left them, and that, were a choice to be made from them all, no one could be preferred to Conon. " Pharnabazus was accordingly furnished with five hundred talents and directed to set Conon over the fleet.

[6. 2] L When this arrangement was publicly known, the Lacedaemonians, through their ambassadors, requested aid for their efforts by sea from Hercynio, king of Egypt, 2 by whom a hundred triremes, and six hundred thousand modii of corn, were despatched to them, while from their other allies a great number of forces were also assembled. 3 But for such an army, and against such a leader, an efficient commander was wanting; 4 and when the auxiliaries desired Agesilaus, then king of the Lacedaemonians, for their general, the Lacedaemonians, in consequence of an answer from the oracle at Delphi, were long in doubt whether they should appoint him to the chief command, 5 as it was signified to them that "there would be an end of their power when the kingly authority should be lame;" and Agesilaus was lame of one foot. 6 At last they decided that "it was better for the king to halt in his gait than for the kingdom to halt in its power;" 7 and when they afterwards sent Agesilaus, with a large army into Asia, I cannot easily tell what other two generals were ever so well matched; 8 for the age, valour, conduct, and wisdom of both were nearly equal, as was also the fame of their achievements; 9 and fortune, who had given them equal qualifications, had kept the one from being conquered by the other. 10 Great preparations for war, therefore, were made by both, and great deeds were performed. 11 But a mutiny among his soldiers arose to trouble Conon, in consequence of the king's officers making it a practice to defraud them of their pay; and they demanded their arrears the more obstinately, as they anticipated that service under so great a general would be very severe. 12 Conon, having long importuned the king by letters to no purpose, went at last to him in person, 13 but was debarred from any interview or conference with him, because he would not do him homage after the manner of the Persians. 14 He, however, treated with him through his ministers, and complained that "the wars of the richest king in the world ended in nothing through want of pay; and that he who had an army equal to that of the enemy, was defeated by means of money in which he was their superior, and found inferior to them in that article of power in which he had far the advantage of them. " 15 He also desired that one paymaster might be appointed for his troops, as it was evidently detrimental to commit that office to several. 16 Money for his soldiers was then given him, and he returned to the fleet. Nor did he delay to enter on action; he executed many undertakings with resolution, many with success; he laid waste the enemy's country, stormed their towns, and bore down everything before him like a hurricane. 17 The Lacedaemonians were so alarmed at his progress, that they resolved on recalling Agesilaus from Asia to the support of his country.

[6. 3] L In the meantime Pisander, who had been left governor of his country by Agesilaus at his departure, fitted out a powerful fleet with the utmost exertion, determining to try the fortune of war. 2 Conon, too, on the other hand, being then to encounter the enemy's army for the first time, put his troops in order with the greatest care. 3 The emulation between the generals in the contest was not greater than that between the soldiers. 4 Conon himself, in his character of leader, did not so much regard the interest of the Persians as the honour of his own country; 5 and as, when the strength of the Athenians was reduced, he had occasioned the utter loss of their power, so he had a desire to be accounted its restorer, as well as to reinstate himself in his country by a victory from which he had been exiled through being defeated; 6 and this the more remarkably as he was not to fight with the aid of the Athenians themselves, but with that of a foreign state; he was going to contend at the risk of the king, but to conquer to the advantage of his country, acquiring glory by means dissimilar from those by which the former generals of Athens had obtained it, 7 for they had defended their country by defeating the Persians, but he would re-establish his country by making the Persians victorious. 8 Pisander too, from his relationship to Agesilaus, was also an emulator of his virtues, and endeavoured not to fall short of his exploits and the brilliancy of his renown, and not to overthrow, by the misconduct of a moment, a power which had been gained by so many wars through so many ages. 9 The anxiety of all the soldiers and sailors was similar, being not so much concerned that they might not lose the power which they had got, as that the Athenians might not recover their former eminence. 10 But the more spirited was the struggle, the more honourable was the victory of Conon. 11 The Lacedaemonians were routed and put to flight; the garrison of the enemy was withdrawn from Athens; 12 the people were restored to their rights, and their bondage was at an end; and several cities were reduced to their former state of obedience.

[6. 4] L To the Athenians this event was the beginning of their restoration to power; to the Lacedaemonians it was the termination of their authority; 2 for, as if they had lost their spirit with their pre-eminence, they began to be regarded with contempt by their neighbours. 3 The first people that made war upon them, with the aid of the Athenians, were the Thebans; 4 a state which, by the abilities of its general, Epaminondas, was raised from the most humble condition to the hope of governing Greece. 5 A battle was fought between the two powers by land, with the same fortune on the part of the Lacedaemonians as they had experienced against Conon by sea. 6 In this encounter Lysander, under whose conduct the Athenians had been defeated by the Lacedaemonians, was killed. 7 Pausanias also, the other general of the Lacedaemonians, went into exile in consequence of being accused of treachery.

8 The Thebans, on gaining the victory, led their whole force against Lacedaemon, expecting that it would be easy to reduce the city, as the Spartans were deserted by all their allies. 9 The Lacedaemonians, dreading the event, sent for their king Agesilaus out of Asia, where he was performing great exploits, to defend his country; 10 for since Lysander was slain, they had no confidence in any other general; 11 but, as he was tardy in coming, they raised an army, and proceeded to meet the enemy.
12 Having been once conquered, however, they had neither spirit nor strength to meet those who had recently vanquished them. They were accordingly routed in the very first onset. 13 But Agesilaus came up just when the forces of his countrymen were overthrown; and, having renewed the contest, he, with his fresh troops, invigorated by long service, snatched the victory from the enemy without difficulty, but was himself severely wounded.

[6. 5] L The Athenians, receiving intelligence of this event, and fearing that if the Lacedaemonians obtained another victory, they should be reduced to their former state of bondage, assembled an army, 2 and ordered that it should be conducted to the aid of the Boeotians by Iphicrates, a young man only twenty years of age, but of great abilities. 3 The conduct of this youth was above his years, and greatly to be admired; 4 nor had the Athenians ever before him, among so many and so great leaders, a captain of greater promise, or of talents that sooner came to maturity; 5 and he had not only the qualifications of a general, but also those of an orator.

6 Conon, having heard of the return of Agesilaus, came also himself from Asia to ravage the country of the Lacedaemonians; 7 who, while the terrors of war raged around them, were shut up within their walls, and reduced to the depths of despair. 8 After wasting the enemy's territories, Conon proceeded to Athens, where he was received with great joy on the part of his countrymen; but he felt more sorrow at the state of his native city, which had been burnt and laid in ruins by the Lacedaemonians, than joy at his return to it after so long an absence. 9 He accordingly repaired what had been burnt, and rebuilt what had been demolished, from the price of the spoil which he had taken, and with the help of the Persian troops. 10 Such was the fate of Athens, that having been first burnt by the Persians, it was restored by their labour; and having been afterwards wasted by the Lacedaemonians, it was re-adorned from their spoils; 11 and, the state of things being reversed, it had now for allies those whom it then had for enemies, and those for enemies with whom it had been joined in the closest bonds of alliance.

[6. 6] L During the course of these proceedings, Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, sent deputies into Greece, with injunctions, "that they should all lay down their arms," and assurances "that he would treat as enemies those who should act otherwise. " He restored to the cities their liberty and all that belonged to them;2 a course which he did not adopt from concern for the troubles of the Greeks, and for their incessant and deadly enmities displayed in the field, 3 but from unwillingness that, while he was engaged in a war with Egypt (which he had undertaken because the Egyptians had sent aid to the Spartans against his satraps), his troops should be obliged to stay in Greece. 4 The Greeks, exhausted with so much fighting, eagerly obeyed his mandate.

5 This year was not only remarkable for a peace being suddenly made throughout Greece, but for the taking of the city of Rome at the same time by the Gauls.

6 But the Lacedaemonians, watching an opportunity of surprising the unguarded, and observing that the Arcadians were absent from their country, stormed one of their fortresses, and, having taken possession of it, placed a garrison in it. 7 The Arcadians in consequence, arming and equipping a body of troops, and calling the Thebans to their assistance, demanded in open war the restitution of what they had lost. 8 In the battle which followed, Archidamus, general of the Lacedaemonians, was wounded, 9 and, seeing his men cut down and apparently defeated, sent a herald to ask the bodies of the slain for burial; 10 this being a sign among the Greeks that the victory is yielded. The Thebans, satisfied with this acknowledgment, made the signal for giving quarter.

[6. 7] L After the lapse of a few days, while neither side was offering any hostility, and while, as the Lacedaemonians were engaged in other contentions with their neighbours, a truce was observed as it were by tacit consent, the Thebans, under the leadership of Epaminondas, conceived hopes of seizing the city of Sparta. 2 They accordingly proceeded thither secretly, in the early part of the night, but failed to take the inhabitants by surprise; 3 for the old men, and others of an age unfit for war, observing the approach of the enemy, met them in arms at the very entrance of the gates; 4 and not more than a hundred men, enfeebled with years, offered battle to fifteen thousand. 5 So much spirit and vigour does the sight of our country and homes inspire; and so much more confidence is afforded by the presence, than by the remembrance of them; 6 for when they considered where and for what they took their stand, they resolved either to conquer or die. 7 A few old men, in consequence, held out against an army, which, shortly before, the flower of their troops were unable to withstand. 8 In this battle two generals of the enemy were killed, 9 when, on intelligence being received that Agesilaus was approaching, the Thebans retreated. 10 But there was no long cessation of hostilities; for the Spartan youth, incited by the heroism and glorious deeds of the old men, could not be prevented from promptly engaging in the field. 11 Just as victory inclined to the Thebans, Epaminondas, while he was discharging the duty, not only of a general, but of a gallant soldier, was severely wounded. `2 When this was known, fear fell upon one side from deep concern, and stupefaction on the other from excess of joy; and both parties, as if by mutual agreement, retired from the field.

[6. 8] L A few days after, Epaminondas died, and with him fell the spirit of the Theban state. 2 For as, when you break off the point of a dart, you take from the rest of the steel the power of wounding, so when that general of the Thebans (who was, as it were, the point of their weapon) was taken off, the strength of their government was so debilitated, that they seemed not so much to have lost him as to have all died with him. 3 They neither carried on any memorable war before he became their leader, nor were they afterwards remarkable for their successes, but for their defeats; so that it is certain that with him the glory of his country both rose and fell. 4 Whether he was more estimable as a man or a general is undecided; 5 for he never sought power for himself, but for his country, 6 and was so far from coveting money, that he did not leave sufficient to pay for his funeral. 7 Nor was he more desirous of distinction than of wealth; for all the appointments that he held were conferred on him against his will, 8 and he filled his posts in such a manner that he seemed to add lustre to his honours rather than to receive it from them. 9 His application to learning, and his knowledge of philosophy, were such, that it seemed wonderful how a man bred up in literature could have so excellent a knowledge of war. 10 The manner of his death, too, was not at variance with his course of life; 11 for when he was carried back half dead into the camp, and had recovered his breath and voice, he asked only this question of those that stood about him, "whether the enemy had taken his shield from him when he fell? " 12 Hearing that it was saved, he kissed it, when it was brought to him, as the sharer of his toils and glory. He afterwards inquired which side had gained the victory, 13 and hearing that the Thebans had got it, observed, "It is well," and so, as it were congratulating his country, expired.

[6. 9] L With his death the spirit of the Athenians also declined. 2 For after he whom they were wont to emulate was gone, they sank into sloth and effeminacy, 3 and spent the public income, not, as formerly, upon fleets and armies, but upon festivals, and the celebration of games; 4 frequenting the theatres for the sake of eminent actors and poets, visiting the stage oftener than the camp, and praising men rather for being good versifiers than good generals. 5 It was then that the public revenues, from which soldiers and sailors used to be maintained, were distributed among the people of the city. 6 By which means it came to pass, that during the absence of exertion on the part of the Greeks, the name of the Macedonians, previously mean and obscure, rose into notice; 7 and Philippus, who had been kept three years as a hostage at Thebes, and had been imbued with the virtues of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, imposed the power of Macedonia, like a yoke of bondage, upon the necks of Greece and Asia.

Following books (7-10) →

Attalus' home page | 15. 12. 16 | Any comments?

back
Justinus: Epitome of Pompeius Trogus' Philippic Histories
- books 7 to 10
Translated by Rev. J. S. Watson (1853). See key to translations for an explanation of the format.


← previous books (3-6)

BOOK 7

[7. 1] L Macedonia was formerly called Emathia, from the name of king Emathion, of whose prowess the earliest proofs are extant in those parts. 2 As the origin of this kingdom was but humble, so its limits were at first extremely narrow. 3 The inhabitants were called Pelasgi, the country Paeonia. 4 But in process of time, when, through the ability of their princes and the exertions of their subjects, they had conquered, first of all, the neighbouring tribes, and afterwards other nations and peoples, their dominions extended to the utmost boundaries of the east. 5 In the region of Paeonia, which is now a portion of Macedonia, is said to have reigned Pelegonus, the father of Asteropaeus, whose name we find, in the Trojan war, among the most distinguished defenders of the city. 6 On the other side a king named Europus held the sovereignty in a district called Europa.

7 But Caranus, accompanied by a great multitude of Greeks, having been directed by an oracle to seek a settlement in Macedonia, and having come into Emathia, and followed a flock of goats that were fleeing from a tempest, possessed himself of the city of Edessa, before the inhabitants, on account of the thickness of the rain and mist, were aware of his approach; 8 and being reminded of the oracle, by which he had been ordered "to seek a kingdom with goats for his guides," he made this city the seat of his government, 9 and afterwards religiously took care, whithersoever he led his troops, to keep the same goats before his standards, that he might have those animals as leaders in his enterprises which he had had as guides to the site of his kingdom. 10 He changed the name of the city, in commemoration of his good fortune, from Edessa to Aegeae, and called the inhabitants Aegeatae. 11 Having subsequently expelled Midas (for he also occupied a part of Macedonia), and driven other kings from their territories, he established himself, as sole monarch, in the place of them all, 12 and was the first that, by uniting tribes of different people, formed Macedonia as it were into one body, and laid a solid foundation for the extension of his growing kingdom.

[7. 2] L After him reigned Perdiccas, whose life was distinguished, and the circumstances of whose death, as if ordered by an oracle, were worthy of record; 2 for when he was old and at the point of death, he made known to his son Argaeus a place in which he wished to be buried, and directed that not only his own bones, but those of the kings that should succeed him, should be deposited in the same spot; 3 signifying that, "as long as the relics of his posterity should be buried there, the crown would remain in his family;" 4 and the people believe, in consequence of this superstitious notion, that the line came to be extinct in Alexander, because he changed the place of burial. 5 Argaeus, having governed the kingdom with moderation, and gained the love of his subjects, left his son Philippus his successor, who, being carried off by an untimely death, made Aeropus, then quite a boy, his heir.

6 The Macedonians had perpetual contests with the Thracians and Illyrians, and, being hardened by their arms, as it were by daily exercise, they struck terror into their neighbours by the splendour of their reputation for war. 7 The Illyrians, however, despising the boyhood of a king under age, attacked the Macedonians, 8 who, being worsted in the field, brought out their king with them in his cradle, and, placing him behind the front lines, renewed the fight with greater vigour, 9 as if they had been defeated before, because the fortune of their prince was not with them in the battle, 10 and would now certainly conquer, because, from this superstitious fancy, they had conceived a confidence of victory; 11 while compassion for the infant, also, moved them, as, if they were overcome, they seemed likely to transform him from a king into a captive. 12 Engaging in battle, therefore, they routed the Illyrians with great slaughter, and showed their enemies, that, in the former encounter, it was a king, and not valour, that was wanting to the Macedonians. 13 To Aeropus succeeded Amyntas, a prince eminently distinguished, both for his own personal valour, and for the excellent abilities of his son Alexander, 14 who had from nature such remarkable talents of every kind, that he contended for the prize in various species of exercises at the Olympic games.

[7. 3] L About this time Darius king of Persia, having been forced to quit Scythia in dishonourable flight, but not wishing to be thought everywhere contemptible from losses in war, despatched Megabazus, with a portion of his army, to subdue Thrace, and other kingdoms in those parts; to which Macedonia, he thought, would fall as an unimportant addition. 2 Megabazus, speedily executing the king's orders, and sending deputies to Amyntas king of Macedonia, demanded that hostages should be given him as a pledge of future peace. 3 The deputies, being liberally entertained, asked Amyntas, as their intoxication increased in the progress of a banquet, "to add to the magnificence of his board the privileges of friendship, by sending for his and his sons' wives to join the feast; a practice which is deemed, among the Persians, a pledge and bond of hospitality. " 4 The women having entered, and the Persians laying hands upon them too freely, Alexander, the son of Amyntas, begged his father, from regard to his age and dignity, to leave the banqueting-room, engaging that he himself would moderate the frolicsome spirit of their guests. 5 Amyntas having withdrawn, Alexander called the women from the apartment for a while, under pretext of having them dressed in better style, and bringing them back with greater attractions. 6 But in their place he put young men, clad in the habit of matrons, and ordered them to chastise the insolence of the deputies with swords which they were to carry under their garments. 7 All of them being thus put to death, Megabazus, not knowing what had happened, but finding that the deputies did not return, sent Bubares to Macedonia with a detachment of his forces, as to an easy and trifling contest; 8 disdaining to go himself, that he might not be disgraced by an encounter with so despicable a people. 9 But Bubares, before he came to an engagement, fell in love with the daughter of Amyntas; breaking off hostilities, he celebrated a marriage, and, all thoughts of war being abandoned, entered into bonds of affinity with the king.

[7. 4] L Soon after the departure of Bubares from Macedonia, king Amyntas died; but his relationship with Bubares not only secured to his son and successor, Alexander, peace during the reign of Darius, but also such favour with Xerxes, that, when that monarch overspread Greece like a tempest, he conferred upon him the sovereignty of all the country between the mountains of Olympus and Haemus. 2 But Alexander enlarged his dominions not less by his own valour than through the munificence of the Persians. 3 The throne afterwards descended, by the order of succession, to Amyntas, the son of his brother Menelaus. 4 This prince was remarkable for his application to business, and was endowed with all the accomplishments of a great general. 5 By his wife Eurydice he had three sons, Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philippus, the father of Alexander the Great, and one daughter, named Eurynoe; he had also by Gygaea Archelaus, Aridaeus, and Menelaus. 6 Subsequently he had formidable contests with the Illyrians and Olynthians. 7 He would have been cut off by a plot of his wife Eurydice, who, having engaged to marry her son-in-law, had undertaken to kill her husband, and to put the government into the hands of her paramour, had not her daughter betrayed the intrigue and atrocious intentions of her mother. 9 Having escaped so many dangers, he died at an advanced age, leaving the throne to Alexander, the eldest of his sons.

[7. 5] L Alexander, at the very beginning of his reign, purchased peace from the Illyrians with a sum of money, giving his brother Philippus to them as a hostage. 2 Sometime after, too, he made peace with the Thebans by giving the same hostage; a circumstance which afforded Philippus fine opportunities of improving his extraordinary abilities; 3 for, being kept as a hostage at Thebes three years, he received the first rudiments of education in a city distinguished for strictness of discipline, and in the house of Epaminondas, an eminent philosopher, as well as commander. 4 Not long afterwards Alexander fell by a plot of his mother Eurydice, 5 whom Amyntas, when she was convicted of a conspiracy against him, had spared for the sake of their children, little imagining that she would one day be the destroyer of them. 6 Perdiccas, also, the brother of Alexander, was taken off by similar treachery. 7 Horrible, indeed, was it, that children should have been deprived of life by a mother, to gratify her lust, whom a regard for those very children had saved from the punishment of her crimes. 8 The murder of Perdiccas seemed the more atrocious from the circumstance that not even the prayers of his little son could procure him pity from his mother. 9 Philippus, for a long time, acted, not as king, but as guardian to this infant; 10 but when dangerous wars threatened, and it was too long to wait for the co-operation of a prince who was yet a child, he was forced by the people to take the government upon himself.

[7. 6] L When he took possession of the throne, great hopes were formed of him by all, both on account of his abilities, which promised that he would prove a great man, and on account of certain old oracles respecting Macedonia, 2 which had foretold that "when one of the sons of Amyntas should be king, the state of the country would be extremely flourishing:" to fulfil which expectations the wickedness of his mother had left only him. 3 At the commencement of his reign, when, on the one hand, the murder of his brother, so atrociously put to death, and the dread of treachery; on the other, a multitude of enemies, and the poverty of his kingdom, exhausted by a series of wars, bore hard upon the young king's immature age, 4 thinking it proper to make distinct arrangements as to the wars, which, as if by a common conspiracy to crush Macedonia, rose around him from different nations and several quarters at the same time, to all of which he could not at once make resistance, 5 he put an end to some by offers of peace, and bought off others, but attacked such of his enemies as seemed easiest to be subdued, that, by a victory over them, he might confirm the wavering minds of his soldiers, and alter any feelings of contempt with which his adversaries might regard him. 6 His first conflict was with the Athenians, whom he surprised by a stratagem, but, though he might have put them all to the sword, he yet, from dread of a more formidable war, allowed them to depart uninjured and without ransom. 7 Afterwards, leading his army against the Illyrians, he killed several thousand of his enemies; and (? ) he captured the famous city of Larissa. 8 He then fell suddenly on Thessaly (when it apprehended anything rather than war), not from desire of spoil, but because he wished to add the strength of the Thessalian cavalry to his own troops; 9 and he thus incorporated a force of horse and foot in one invincible army. 10 His undertakings having been thus far successful, he married Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, afterwards king of the Molossians. 11 Her cousin Arrybas, then king of that nation, who had brought up the young princess, and had married her sister Troas, promoted the union; but this proceeding proved the cause of his ruin, and the beginning of all the evils that afterwards befell him;12 for while he hoped to strengthen his kingdom by this affinity with Philippus, he was by that monarch deprived of his crown, and spent his old age in exile.

13 After these proceedings, Philippus, no longer satisfied with acting on the defensive, boldly attacked even those who gave him no molestation. 14 While he was besieging Methone, an arrow, shot from the walls at him as he was passing by, struck out his right eye; 15 but by this wound he was neither rendered less active in the siege, nor more resentful towards the enemy; 16 so that, some days after, he granted them peace on their application for it, and was not only not severe, but even merciful, to the conquered.

BOOK 8

[8. 1] L The states of Greece, while each sought to gain the sovereignty of the country for itself, lost it as a body. 2 Striving intemperately to ruin one another, they did not perceive, till they were oppressed by another power, that what each lost was a common loss to all; 3 for Philippus, king of Macedonia, looking, as from a watch-tower, for an opportunity to attack their liberties, and fomenting their contentions by assisting the weaker, obliged victors and vanquished alike to submit to his royal yoke. 4 The Thebans were the cause and origin of this calamity, who, obtaining power, and having no steadiness of mind to bear prosperity, insolently accused the Lacedaemonians and Phocians, when they had conquered them in the field, before the common council of Greece, as if they had not been sufficiently punished by the slaughters and depredations that they had suffered. 5 It was laid to the charge of the Lacedaemonians, that they had seized the citadel of Thebes during a time of truce, and to that of the Phocians, that they had laid waste Boeotia, 6 as if the Thebans themselves, after their conduct in the field, had left themselves any ground for resorting to law. 7 But as the cause was conducted according to the will of the more powerful, the Phocians were sentenced to pay such a fine as it was impossible for them to raise, 8 and in consequence, despoiled of their lands, children, and wives, and reduced to desperation, they seized, under the leadership of one Philomelus, on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, as if they were enraged at the god. 9 Being hence enriched with gold and treasure, and hiring mercenary troops, they made war upon the Thebans. 10 This proceeding of the Phocians, though all expressed detestation at the sacrilege, brought more odium upon the Thebans, by whom they had been reduced to such necessity, than on the Phocians themselves; 11 and aid was in consequence despatched to them both by the Athenians and Lacedaemonians. 12 In the first engagement, Philomelus drove the Thebans from their camp; 13 but in the next he was killed, fighting in front among the thickest of the enemy, and paid the penalty of his sacrilege by the effusion of his impious blood. 14 Onomarchus was made general in his stead.

[8. 2] L To oppose Onomarchus, the Thebans and Thessalians chose as general, not one of their own people, lest they should not be able to endure his rule if he should conquer, 2 but Philippus, king of Macedonia, voluntarily submitting to that power from a foreigner which they dreaded in the hands of their own countrymen. 3 Philippus, as if he were the avenger of the sacrilege, not the defender of the Thebans, ordered all his soldiers to assume crowns of laurel, and proceeded to battle as if under the leadership of the god. 4 The Phocians, seeing these symbols of the deity, and burdened with the consciousness of guilt, threw down their arms and fled, receiving punishment for their violation of religion by the bloodshed and slaughter that they suffered. 5 This affair brought incredibly great glory to Philippus in the opinion of all people, 6 who called him "the avenger of the god, and the defender of religion," and said that "he alone had arisen to require satisfaction for what ought to have been punished by the combined force of the world, 7 and was consequently worthy to be ranked next to the gods, as by him the majesty of the gods had been vindicated. "

8 The Athenians, hearing the result of the conflict, and fearing that Philippus would march into Greece, took possession of the straits of Thermopylae, as they had done on the invasion of the Persians, but by no means with like spirit, or in a similar cause; 9 for then they fought on behalf of the liberty of Greece, now, on behalf of public sacrilege; then to defend the temples of the gods from the ravages of an enemy, now, to defend the plunderers of temples against the avengers of their guilt, 10 acting as advocates of a crime of which it was dishonourable to them that others should have been the punishers, 11 and utterly unmindful that, in their dangers, they had often had recourse to this deity as a counsellor; that, under his guidance, they had entered on so many wars with success, had founded so many cities auspiciously, and had acquired so extensive a dominion by sea and land: and that they had never done anything, either of a public or private nature, without the sanction of his authority. 12 Strange that a people of such ability, improved by every kind of learning, and formed by the most excellent laws and institutions, should have brought such guilt upon themselves as to leave nothing with which they could afterwards justly upbraid barbarians.

[8. 3] L Nor did Philippus distinguish himself by more honourable conduct towards his allies; 2 for, as if he was afraid of being surpassed by his opponents in the guilt of sacrilege, he seized and plundered, like an enemy, cities of which he had just before been captain, which had fought under his auspices, and which had congratulated him and themselves on their victories; 3 he sold the wives and children of the inhabitants for slaves; 4 he spared neither the temples of the gods, nor other sacred structures, nor the penates, public or private, before whom he had recently presented himself as a guest; 5 so that he seemed not so much to avenge sacrilege as to seek a license for committing it.

6 In the next place, as if he had done everything well, he crossed over into Chalcidice, where, conducting his wars with equal perfidy, and treacherously capturing or killing the neighbouring princes, he united the whole of the province to the kingdom of Macedonia. 7 Afterwards, to throw a veil over his character for dishonesty, for which he was now deemed remarkable above other men, he sent persons through the kingdoms and the richest of the cities, 8 to spread a report that king Philippus was ready to contract, at a vast sum, for the re-building of the walls, temples, and sacred edifices, in the several towns, and to invite contractors by public criers; 9 but when those who were willing to undertake these works went to Macedonia, they found themselves put off with various excuses, and, from dread of the king's power, returned quietly to their homes. 10 Soon after he fell upon the Olynthians, because, after the death of one of his brothers, they had, from pity, afforded a refuge to two others, whom, being the sons of his step-mother, Philippus would gladly have cut off, as pretenders to a share in the throne. 11 For this reason he destroyed an ancient and noble city, consigning his brothers to the death long before destined for them, and delighting himself at the same time with a vast quantity of booty, and the gratification of his fratricidal inclinations. 12 Next, as if everything that he meditated was lawful for him to do, he seized upon the gold mines in Thessaly, and the silver ones in Thrace, 13 and, to leave no law or right unviolated, proceeded to engage in piracy. 14 While such was his conduct, it happened that two brothers, princes of Thrace, chose him as arbitrator in their disputes, not, indeed, from respect for his justice, but because each dreaded that he would unite his strength to that of the other. 15 Philippus, in accordance with his practice and disposition, came unexpectedly upon the brothers with an army in full array, not apparently to try a cause, but to fight a battle, and spoiled them both of their dominions, not like a judge, but with the perfidy and baseness of a robber.

[8. 4] L During the course of these transactions, ambassadors came to him from the Athenians to ask for peace. 2 Having listened to their request, he despatched ambassadors to Athens with terms, and a peace was concluded there to the advantage of both parties. 3 Embassies came to him also from other states of Greece, not from inclination for peace, but for fear of war; 4 for the Thessalians and Boeotians, with reviving wrath, entreated that he would prove himself the leader of Greece, as he had professed to be, against the Phocians; 5 such being the hatred with which they were inflamed towards that people, that they chose rather to perish themselves, than not to destroy them, and to submit to the known cruelty of Philippus, rather than spare their enemies. 6 On the other hand, ambassadors from the Phocians (the Lacedaemonians and Athenians joining with them) endeavoured to avert the war, forbearance from which they had thrice before purchased from Philippus. 7 It was a shameful and miserable sight, to behold Greece, even then the most distinguished country in the world for power and dignity, a country that had constantly been the conqueror of kings and nations, and was still mistress of many cities, waiting at a foreign court to ask or deprecate war;8 that the champions of the world should place all their hopes on assistance from another, and should be reduced, by their discords and civil feuds, to such a condition as to flatter a power which had lately been a humble portion of their dependencies; 9 and that the Thebans and Lacedaemonians should especially do this, who were formerly rivals for sovereignty, but now for the favour of a sovereign. 10 Philippus, to show his importance, assumed an air of disdain for these great cities, and deliberated to which of the two he should vouchsafe his favour. 11 Having heard both embassies privately, he promised to the one security from war, binding them by an oath to reveal his answer to nobody; to the other he engaged himself to come and bring them assistance. He charged them both neither to prepare for war, nor to fear it. 12 Different replies being thus given to each, he seized, while they were all free from apprehension, on the pass of Thermopylae.

[8. 5] L The Phocians in consequence, finding themselves overreached by the cunning of Philippus, were the first, in great trepidation, to take arms. 2 But there was no time to make due preparation for war, or to collect auxiliaries, and Philippus, unless a surrender should be made, threatened their destruction. 3 Overcome, accordingly, by necessity, they submitted, stipulating only for their lives. 4 But this stipulation was just as faithfully observed by Philippus as his promises had been respecting the war which they had deprecated. 5 They were everywhere put to the sword, or made prisoners; children were not left to their parents, nor wives to their husbands, nor the statues of the gods in the temples. 6 The sole comfort of the wretched people was, that as Philippus had defrauded his allies of their share of the spoil, they saw none of their property in the hands of their enemies.

7 On his return to his kingdom, as shepherds drive their flocks sometimes into winter, sometimes into summer pastures, so he transplanted people and cities hither and thither, according to his caprice, as places appeared to him proper to be peopled or left desolate. 8 The aspect of things was everywhere wretched, like that of a country ravaged by an enemy. 9 There was not, indeed, that terror of a foe, or hurrying of troops through the cities, or seizure of property and prisoners, which are seen during a hostile invasion; but there prevailed a sorrow and sadness not expressed in words, 10 the people fearing that even their very tears would he thought signs of discontent 11 Their grief was augmented by the very concealment of it, sinking the deeper the less they were permitted to utter it. 12 At one time they contemplated the sepulchres of their ancestors, at another their old household gods, at another the homes in which they had been born, and in which they had had families; 13 lamenting sometimes their own fate, that they had lived to that day, and sometimes that of their children, that they were not born after it.

[8. 6] L Some people he planted upon the frontiers of his kingdom to oppose his enemies; others he settled at the extremities of it. Some, whom he had taken prisoners in war, he distributed among certain cities to fill up the number of inhabitants; 2 and thus, out of various tribes and nations, he formed one kingdom and people. 3 When he had settled and put in order the affairs of Macedonia, he reduced the Dardanians and others of his neighbours, who were overreached by his treacherous dealings. 4 Nor did he keep his hands even from his own relations; for he resolved on expelling Arrybas, king of Epirus, who was nearly related to his wife Olympias, out of his kingdom; 5 and he invited Alexander, a step-son of Arrybas, and brother of his wife Olympias (a youth of remarkable beauty), into Macedonia, in his sister's name, 6 and engaged him, after earnestly tempting him with hopes of his father's throne, and pretending violent love for him, in a criminal intercourse, thinking to find greater submission from him, whether through shame on account of his guilt, or through obligation for a kingdom conferred upon him. 7 When he was twenty years of age, accordingly, he took the kingdom from Arrybas, and gave it to the youth, acting a base part towards both, 8 for he disregarded the claims of kinship in him from whom he took the kingdom, and corrupted him to whom he gave it before he made him a king.

BOOK 9

[9. 1] L When Philippus had once come into Greece, allured by the plunder of a few cities, and had formed an opinion, from the spoil of such towns as were of less note, how great must be the riches of all its cities put together, he resolved to make war upon the whole of Greece. 2 Thinking that it would greatly conduce to the promotion of his design, if he could get possession of Byzantium, a noble city and seaport, which would be a station for his forces by land and sea, he proceeded, as it shut its gates against him, to lay close siege to it. 3 This city had been founded by Pausanias, king of Sparta, and held by him for seven years, but afterwards, as the fortune of war varied, it was regarded as at one time belonging to the Athenians, and at another to the Lacedaemonians; 4 and this uncertainty of possession was the cause that, while neither party supported it as its own, it maintained its liberty with the greater determination. 5 Philippus, exhausted by the length of the siege, had recourse to piracy for a supply of money, 6 and having captured a hundred and seventy ships, and sold off the cargoes, he was enabled for a while to relieve his craving wants. 7 But that so great an army might not be wasted in the siege of a single city, he marched away with his best troops, and stormed some towns of the Chersonese. 8 He also sent for his son Alexander, who was then eighteen years of age, to join him, and learn the rudiments of war in the camp of his father. 9 He made an expedition, too, into Scythia, to get plunder, that, after the practice of traders, he might make up for the expenses of one war by the profits of another.

[9. 2] L The king of the Scythians at that time was Atheas, who, being distressed by a war with the Istrians, sought aid from Philippus through the people of Apollonia, on the understanding that he would adopt him for his successor on the throne of Scythia. 2 But in the meantime, the king of the Istrians died, and relieved the Scythians both from the fear of war and the want of assistance. 3 Atheas, therefore, sending away the Macedonians, ordered a message to be sent to Philippus, that "he had neither sought his aid, nor proposed his adoption; 4 for the Scythians needed no protection from the Macedonians, to whom they were superior in the field, nor did he himself want an heir, as he had a son living. " 5 When Philippus heard this, he sent ambassadors to Atheas to ask him to defray at least a portion of the expense of the siege, that he might not be forced to raise it for want of money; 6 "a request," he said, "with which he ought the more readily to comply, as, when he sent soldiers to his assistance, he had not even paid their expenses on the march, to say nothing of remuneration for their service. " 7 Atheas, alluding to the rigour of their climate and the barrenness of their soil, which, far from enriching the Scythians with wealth, scarcely afforded them sustenance, replied, that "he had no treasury to satisfy so great a king, 8 and that he thought it less honourable to do little than to refuse altogether; 9 but that the Scythians were to be estimated by their valour and hardiness of body, not by their possessions. " 10 Philippus, mocked by this message, broke up the siege of Byzantium, and entered upon a war with the Scythians, first sending ambassadors to lull them into security, by telling Atheas that "while he was besieging Byzantium, he had vowed a statue to Hercules, 11 which he was going to erect at the mouth of the Ister, requesting an unobstructed passage to pay his vow to the god, since he was coming as a friend to the Scythians. " 12 Atheas desired him, "if his object was merely to fulfil his vow, to let the statue be sent to him," promising that "it should not only be erected, but should remain uninjured," but refusing "to allow an army to enter his territories," 13 and adding that, "if he should set up the statue in spite of the Scythians, he would take it down when he was gone, and turn the brass of it into heads for arrows. " 14 With feelings thus irritated on both sides, a battle was fought. Though the Scythians were superior in courage and numbers, they were defeated by the subtlety of Philippus. 15 Twenty thousand young men and women were taken, and a vast number of cattle, but no gold or silver. This was the first proof which they had of the poverty of Scythia. 16 Twenty thousand fine mares were sent into Macedonia to raise a breed.

[9. 3] L But as Philippus was returning from Scythia, the Triballi met him, and refused to allow him a passage, unless they received a share of the spoil. 2 Hence arose a dispute, and afterwards a battle, in which Philippus received so severe a wound through the thigh, that his horse was killed by it; 3 and while it was generally supposed that he was dead, the booty was lost. Thus the Scythian spoil, as if attended with a curse, had almost proved fatal to the Macedonians.

4 But as soon as he recovered from his wound, he made war upon the Athenians, of which he had long dissembled his intention. 5 The Thebans espoused their cause, fearing that if the Athenians were conquered, the war, like a fire in the neighbourhood, would spread to them. 6 An alliance being accordingly made between the two cities, which were just before at violent enmity with each other, they wearied Greece with embassies, stating that "they thought the common enemy should be repelled by their common strength, 7 for that Philippus would not rest, if his first attempts succeeded, until he had subjugated all Greece. " 8 Some of the cities were moved by these arguments, and joined themselves to the Athenians; but the dread of a war induced some to go over to Philippus. 9 A battle being brought on, though the Athenians were far superior in number of soldiers, they were conquered by the valour of the Macedonians, which was invigorated by constant service in the field. 10 They were not, however, in defeat, unmindful of their ancient valour; for, falling with wounds in front, they all covered the places which they had been charged by their leaders to defend, with their dead bodies. 11 This day put an end to the glorious sovereignty and ancient liberty of all Greece.

[9. 4] L Philippus' joy for this victory was artfully concealed. He abstained from offering the usual sacrifices on that day; he did not smile at table, or mingle any diversions with the entertainment; he had no chaplets or perfumes; and, as far as was in his power, he so managed his conquest that none might think of him as a conqueror. 2 He desired that he should not be called king, but general of Greece; 3 and conducted himself with such prudence, between his own secret joy on the one hand and the grief of the enemy on the other, that he neither appeared to his own subjects to rejoice, nor to the vanquished to insult them. 4 To the Athenians, whom he had found to be his bitterest enemies, he both sent back their prisoners without ransom, and gave up the bodies of the slain for burial; exhorting them to convey the relics of their dead to the sepulchres of their ancestors. 5 He also sent Alexander his son with his friend Antipater to Athens, to establish peace and friendship with them. 6 The Thebans, however, he compelled to purchase their prisoners, as well as the liberty of burying their dead. 7 Some of the chief men of their city, too, he put to death; others he banished, seizing upon the property of them all. 8 Afterwards, he reinstated in their country those that had been unjustly banished, of whom he made three hundred judges and governors of the city, 9 before whom when the most eminent citizens were arraigned on this very charge, that of having banished them unjustly, they had such spirit that they all acknowledged their participation in the fact, and affirmed that it was better with the state when they were condemned than when they were restored. 10 A wonderful instance of courage! They passed sentence, as far as they could, on those who had the disposal of them for life or death, and set at naught the pardon which their enemies could give them; and, as they could not avenge themselves by deeds, they manifested their boldness of spirit by words.