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When he had sailed out of the harbour and was on the high seas, some of the soldiers who were in the largest ship, on which Phalaecus himself was a passenger, conferred with one another because they suspected that no one had sent for them. For they could see on board no officers sent by the peoples who were soliciting aid, and the voyage in prospect was not short, but long and dangerous. [2] Accordingly, since they not only distrusted what they had been told but also feared the overseas campaign, they conspired together, above all those who had commands among the mercenary troops. Finally drawing their swords and menacing Phalaecus and the pilot they forced them to reverse their course. And when those who were sailing in the other boats also did the same, they put in again at a Peloponnesian harbour. [3] Then they gathered at the Malean promontory in Laconia and there found Cnossian envoys who had sailed in from Crete to enlist mercenaries. After these envoys had conversed with Phalaecus and the commanders and had offered rather high pay, they all sailed off with them. Having made port at Cnossus in Crete, they immediately took by storm the city called Lyctus.1 [4] But to the Lyctians, who had been expelled from their native land, there appeared a miraculous and sudden reinforcement. For at about the same time the people of Tarentum were engaged in prosecuting a war against the Lucanians and had sent to the Lacedaemonians, who were the stock of their ancestors, envoys soliciting help, whereupon the Spartans, who were willing to join them because of their relationship, quickly assembled an army and navy and as general in command of it appointed King Archidamus. But as they were about to set sail for Italy, a request came from the Lyctians to help them first. Consenting to this, the Lacedaemonians sailed to Crete, defeated the mercenaries and restored to the Lyctians their native land.

1 An important Cretan city, neighbour of Cnossus and frequently engaged in war with Cnossus. The inhabitants of Lyctus called themselves colonists of Sparta; Aristot. Pol 1271b 28.

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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