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1

When Archias was archon in Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Lucius Papirius Mugilanus and Gaius Servilius Structus. In this year the Argives, charging the Lacedaemonians2 with not paying the sacrifices to Apollo Pythaeus,3 declared war on them; and it was at this very time that Alcibiades, the Athenian general, entered Argolis with an army. [2] Adding these troops to their forces, the Argives advanced against Troezen, a city which was an ally of the Lacedaemonians, and after plundering its territory and burning its farm-buildings they returned home. The Lacedaemonians, being incensed at the lawless acts committed against the Troezenians, resolved to go to war against the Argives; consequently they mustered an army and put their king Agis in command. [3] With this force Agis advanced against the Argives and ravaged their territory, and leading his army to the vicinity of the city he challenged the enemy to battle. [4] The Argives, adding to their army three thousand soldiers from the Eleians and almost as many from the Mantineians, led out their forces from the city. When a pitched battle was imminent, the generals conducted negotiations with each other and agreed upon a cessation of hostilities for four months. [5] But when the armies returned to their homes without accomplishing anything, both cities were angry with the generals who had agreed upon the truce. Consequently the Argives hurled stones at their commanders and began to menace them with death; only reluctantly and after much supplication their lives were spared, but their property was confiscated and their homes razed to the ground. [6] The Lacedaemonians took steps to punish Agis, but when he promised to atone for his error by worthy deeds, they reluctantly let him off, and for the future they chose ten of their wisest men, whom they appointed his advisers, and they ordered him to do nothing without learning their opinion.

1 419 B.C.

2 The Epidaurians, not the Lacedaemonians (see Thuc. 5.53); but Diodorus frequently uses the term "Lacedaemonian" in a wide sense to refer to any ally of Sparta.

3 The temple is likely the one in Asine, which was the only building spared by the Argives when they razed that city (cp. Paus. 2.36.5; Thuc. 5.53.1).

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.36.5
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.53
    • Thucydides, Histories, 5.53.1
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