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Contents of the Fifteenth Book of Diodorus
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95
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1When Evander was archon at Athens, the Romans elected six2 military tribunes with
consular power, Quintus Sulpicius, Gaius Fabius, Quintus Servilius, Publius Cornelius. During
their term of office, the Lacedaemonians took possession of the Cadmeia in Thebes for the
following reasons. Seeing that Boeotia had a large number of cities and that her inhabitants
were men of outstanding valour, while Thebes,3 still retaining her renown of
ancient times, was, generally speaking, the citadel of Boeotia, they were mindful of the danger
that Thebes, if a suitable occasion arose, might claim the leadership of Greece.
[2]
Accordingly the Spartans gave secret instructions4 to their commanders, if ever they found an opportunity, to take
possession of the Cadmeia. Acting under these instructions, Phoebidas the Spartan, who had been
assigned to a command and was leading an expeditionary force against Olynthus, seized the
Cadmeia.5 When the Thebans, resenting this act, gathered under arms, he joined
battle with them and after defeating them exiled three hundred of the most eminent Thebans.
Then after he had terrorized the rest and had stationed a strong garrison in the Cadmeia, he
went off on his own business. For this act the Lacedaemonians, being now discredited in the
eyes of the Greeks,6 punished
Phoebidas with a fine but would not remove the garrison from Thebes.
[3]
So the Thebans in this way lost their independence and were compelled to take orders
from the Lacedaemonians. As the Olynthians continued the war against Amyntas,7 king of the
Macedonians, the Lacedaemonians relieved Phoebidas of his command, and installed Phoebidas'
brother Eudamidas as general. Giving him three thousand hoplites, they dispatched him to carry
on the war against the Olynthians.
1 382/1 B.C.
2 Only four mentioned by name—a frequent inconsistency.
3 Sparta had been successful in stripping Thebes of much of her strength in Boeotia by dissolving the Boeotian League at the time of the King's Peace. Thebes was beginning to assert her strength again by withholding the help due Sparta in her action against Olynthus (see Xen. Hell. 5.2.27).
4 Diodorus alone speaks of these secret instructions which have no existence in Xenophon's fuller account. In fact Xenophon expressly says (Xen. Hell. 5.2.32) ὅτι οὐ προσταχθέντα ὑπὸ τῆς πόλεως ταῦτα ἐπεπράχει. But then we must remember Xenophon's pro-Spartan bias. Plut. Agesilaus 23-24 virtually admits the complicity of Agesilaus, and Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 5.298, accepts the notion of a secret commission, as does Laistner, The Greek World from 479 to 323 B.C., p. 190.
5 See Xen. Hell. 5.2.25-31.
6 The reaction of the Greek world and the punishment of Phoebidas are recounted in Isoc. 4.126; Xen. Hell. 5.4.1; Plut. Pelopidas 6 and Plut. De Genio Socratis 576a; Nepos Pelopidas 1; and Polybius 4.27.4.
7 This was Amyntas III, king of Macedonia 393-369. Through the opposition of a pretender Argaeus and the Illyrians, Amyntas had been confined to a small portion of his realm. By the aid of the Thessalians he had succeeded in ousting Argaeus. Amyntas now looked for help from Sparta to recover the lost portion of his kingdom. (See Xen. Hell. 5.2.11-19 and chap. 19).
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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References (17 total)
- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHLIUS or PHLIASIA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THEBAE
- Smith's Bio, Euda'midas
- Smith's Bio, Leonti'ades
- Smith's Bio, Phoe'bidas
- Cross-references in notes from this page (11):
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
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- LSJ, ἀπό-ρρητος
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