Diodorus Siculus, Library, Book XIV, Chapter 17

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At the close of the year Micion was archon in Athens, and in Rome three military tribunes took over the consular magistracy, Titus Quinctius, Gaius Julius, and Aulus Mamilus. After these magistrates had entered office, the inhabitants of Oropus fell into civil strife and exiled some of their citizens. [2] For a time the exiles undertook to effect their return by their own resources, but finding themselves unable to carry through their purpose, they persuaded the Thebans to send an army to assist them. [3] The Thebans took the field against the Oropians, and becoming masters of the city, resettled the inhabitants some seven stades from the sea; and for some time they allowed them to have their own government, but after this they gave them Theban citizenship and attached their territory to Boeotia. [4]

While these events were taking place, the Lacedaemonians brought a number of charges against the Eleians, the most serious being that they had prevented Agis, their king, from offering sacrifices to the god² and that they had not allowed the Lacedaemonians to complete in the Olympic Games. [5] Consequently, having decided to wage war on the Eleians, they dispatched ten ambassadors to them, ordering them, in the first place, to allow their subject cities to be independent, and after that they demanded of them their quota of the cost of the war against the Athenians. [6] This they did in quest of specious pretexts for themselves and of plausible openings for war. When the Eleians not only paid no heed to them but even accused them besides of enslaving the Greeks, they dispatched Pausanias, the other of their two kings, against them with four thousand soldiers. [7] He was accompanied by many soldiers also from practically all the allies except the Boeotians and Corinthians. They, being offended by the proceedings of the Lacedaemonians, took no part in the campaign against Elis. [8]

Pausanias, then, entered Elis by way of Arcadia and straightway took the outpost of Lasion at the first assault; then, leading his army through Acroreia, he won to his side the four cities of Thraestus, Halium, Epitalium, and Opus. [9] Moving thence, he straightway encamped near Pylus and took this place, which was about seventy stades from Elis. After this, advancing to Elis proper, he pitched his camp on the hills across the river.³ A short time before this the Eleians had got from the Aetolians a thousand elite troops to help them, to whom they had given the region about the gymnasion to guard. [10] When Pausanias first of all started to lay siege to this place, and in a careless manner, not supposing that the Eleians would ever dare to make a sortie against him, suddenly both the Aetolians and many of the citizens, pouring forth from the city, struck terror into the Lacedaemonians and slew some thirty of them. [11] At the time Pausanias raised the siege, but after this, since he saw that the city would be hard to take, he traversed its territory, laying it waste and plundering it, even though it was sacred soil, and gathered great stores of booty. [12] Since the winter was already at hand, he built walled outposts in Elis and left adequate forces in them, and himself passed the winter with the rest of the army in Dyme.

1 402 B.C.

2 Olympian Zeus.

3 The Peneus.

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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Cross-references to this page (13):
- Harper's, Elis
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ACROREIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), EUPAGIUM
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LA´SION
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), OPUS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ORO´PUS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PYLUS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THRAUSTUS
- Smith's Bio, Cincinna'tus
- Smith's Bio, Julus
- Smith's Bio, Lysippus
- Smith's Bio, Pausa'nias
- Smith's Bio, Xe'nias
Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
- Isocrates, On the Peace, Isoc. 8 100
Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (3):
- LSJ, καταπεφρονηκότως
- LSJ, προσεγκα^λέω
- LSJ, προσστρα^τοπεδεύω

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