Diodorus Siculus, Library, Book XV, Chapter 47

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The Lacedaemonians appointed Mnasippus¹ general and ordered him to proceed to Corcyra with sixty-five triremes, his forces consisting of fifteen hundred soldiers. Touching at the island, he picked up the exiles, then sailed into the harbour and captured four ships, the three remaining ships having fled to the shore, where they were burned by the Corcyraeans to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. He also defeated with his infantry a contingent on land which had seized a certain hill, and generally terrorized the Corcyraeans. [2] The Athenians had some time previously dispatched Timotheus, Conon's son, with sixty ships to aid Corcyra. He, however, before intervening in their favour, had sailed to the region of Thrace. Here he summoned many cities to join the alliance, and added thirty triremes to his fleet. [3] At this point, because he was too late to assist Corcyra, he was at first deprived of his command as a result of his loss of popularity. Later, however, when he sailed along the Attic coast to Athens, bringing with him a great number of envoys from states which were ready to conclude an alliance with Athens, having added thirty triremes to his fleet and put the whole fleet in good trim for the war, the people repented and reinstated² him in his command. [4] They furthermore equipped forty additional triremes, so that altogether he had one hundred thirty; they also provided liberal stores of food, engines of war, and other supplies needed for war. To meet the immediate emergency, they chose Ctesicles³ general and sent him with five hundred soldiers to aid the Corcyraeans. [5] He arrived there secretly by night and sailed into Corcyra undetected by the besiegers. Finding the inhabitants of the city at strife with one another and handling military matters badly, he composed the dissensions, devoted much attention to the city's business, and heartened the besieged. [6] At first in an unexpected attack on the besiegers he slew about two hundred, and later in a great battle slew Mnasippus and not a few others. Finally he encircled and laid siege to the besiegers and won great approval.⁴ [7] The war to possess Corcyra was practically at an end when the Athenian fleet sailed in with the generals Timotheus⁵ and Iphicrates. These, having arrived too late for the critical moment, accomplished nothing worth mentioning except that, falling in with some Sicilian triremes⁶ which Dionysius had dispatched under the command of Cissides and Crinippus to assist his allies the Lacedaemonians, they captured them with their crews, nine ships in all. By selling the captives as booty they collected more than sixty talents, with which they paid their forces.⁷ [8]

While these things were going on, in Cyprus Nicocles the eunuch⁸ assassinated the king Evagoras and possessed himself of the royal power over the Salaminians; and in Italy the Romans, arrayed in battle against the Praenestini,⁹ defeated them and slew almost all their opponents.

1 Late summer 373 (Beloch, Griechische Geschichte （2）, 3.1.158). See Xen. Hell. 6.2.3-15.

2 Timotheus was not reinstated though he was acquitted in this cause célèbre. See Xen. Hell. 6.2.13; Nepos Timotheus 4; Dem. 49.9 f., 22.

3 See chap. 46.3 and Xen. Hell. 6.2.10.

4 See Xen. Hell. 6.2.16-26. The year is 372.

5 Timotheus is wrongly included. See Cambridge Ancient History, 6.77.

6 Perhaps the occasion mentioned in Book 16.57.3. Dionysius also sent presents for Delphi (cp. IG, 2（2）. 103.9) which was burned (Dittenberger （3）, 295) in 373.

7 See also Xen. Hell. 6.2.27-39 and Polyaenus 3.9.55.

8 Theopompus (fr. 111) says that Evagoras and his son Pnytagoras were murdered by a eunuch Thrasydaeus. Nicocles, the son and successor of Evagoras, probably had no hand in the murder. See also Aristot. Pol. 1311b; Isoc. 2, Isoc. 3 and Isoc. 9.72. Diodorus has abbreviated his source overmuch and made Nicocles the eunuch.

9 See Livy 6.27.9 ff.

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 (10):
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CORCY´RA
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SA´LAMIS
- Smith's Bio, Crinippus
- Smith's Bio, Eva'goras
- Smith's Bio, Iphi'crates
- Smith's Bio, Mnasippus
- Smith's Bio, Nicocles
- Smith's Bio, Ste'sicles
- Smith's Bio, Thrasydaeus
- Smith's Bio, Timo'theus
Cross-references in notes from this page (12):
- Aristotle, Politics, 5.1311b
- Demosthenes, Against Timotheus, 9
- Isocrates, To Nicocles
- Isocrates, Nicocles or the Cyprians
- Isocrates, Evagoras, 72
- Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.2.10
- Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.2.13
- Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.2.16
- Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.2.27
- Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.2.3
- Cornelius Nepos, Timotheus, 4
- Livy, The History of Rome, Book 6, 27.9
Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
- LSJ, προκατασκευ-άξω
- LSJ, ὑστερ-έω

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