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1

When this year had ended, at Athens Charicleides2 became archon, and in Rome consuls were elected, Lucius Aemilius Mamercus and Lucius Sextius Lateranus. During their term of office the Arcadians collaborating with the Pisans administered the Olympian games, and were masters of the temple and the offerings deposited in it.3 Since the Mantineians had appropriated for their own private uses a large number of the dedications, they were eager as transgressors for the war against the Eleians to continue, in order to avoid, if peace were restored, giving an account of their expenditures.4 [2] But since the rest of the Arcadians wished to make peace, they stirred up strife against their fellow countrymen. Two parties accordingly sprang up, one headed by Tegea, and the other by Mantineia. [3] Their quarrel assumed such proportions that they resorted to a decision by arms, and the Tegeans, having sent ambassadors to the Boeotians, won assistance for themselves, for the Boeotians appointed Epameinondas general, gave him a large army, and dispatched him to aid the Tegeans.5 [4] The Mantineians, terrified at the army from Boeotia and the reputation of Epameinondas, sent envoys to the bitterest enemies of the Boeotians, the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, and prevailed upon them to fight on their side.6 And when both peoples had quickly sent in response strong armies, many heavy engagements took place in the Peloponnesus. [5] Indeed the Lacedaemonians, living near at hand, immediately invaded Arcadia, but Epameinondas, advancing at this juncture with his army and being not far from Mantineia, learned from the inhabitants that the Lacedaemonians, in full force, were plundering the territory of Tegea. [6] Supposing then that Sparta was stripped of soldiers, he planned a great stroke, but fortune worked against him. He himself set out by night to Sparta, but the Lacedaemonian king Agis, suspecting the cunning of Epameinondas, shrewdly guessed what he would do, and sent out some Cretan runners and through them forestalling Epameinondas got word to the men who had been left behind in Sparta that the Boeotians would shortly appear in Lacedaemon to sack the city, but that he himself would come as quickly as possible with his army to bring aid to his native land.7 So he gave orders for those who were in Sparta to watch over the city and be terrified at nothing, for he himself would soon appear with help.

1 363/2 B.C.

2 The battle of Mantineia, described under this archonship, occurred in 362 just as the Mantineians were gathering in the harvest (Xen. Hell. 7.5.14), which would normally take place from the middle of June on (Fougères, Mantinée et l'Arcadie orientale, 56, 460).

3 For the use of the treasure see Cary, Cambridge Ancient History, 6.98, and for the gold coins issued in the name of Pisa see op. cit., Volume of Plates, ii. 6. d.

4 Diodorus completely reverses the role of Mantineia in the matter of the use of the treasures of Olympia. Mantineia, according to Xen. Hell. 7.4.33, protested against this and headed the party eager to make peace with Elis. The quarrel over the appropriation of sacred money brought to light the fundamental split in Arcadian politics.

5 See Xen. Hell. 7.4.34, 35.

6 See Xen. Hell. 7.5.3.

7 See Xen. Hell. 7.5.4-17; Polybius 9.8; Plut. Agesilaus 34. Diodorus' account diverges from the other three in that it is Agesilaus who is represented by them as already on the way to Mantineia and forced to return to protect Sparta. Except for the well-known bias of Xenophon for Agesilaus, one could unhesitatingly suspect Diodorus, especially since no Spartan king Agis is known for this date. Cleomenes, brother of Agesipolis and son of Cleombrotus, succeeded the former in 370 and still ruled (see chap. 60.4 and note 2 on p. 119).

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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