1. Writers who insert lengthy speeches into their history or resort time and again to oratory* lay themselves open to criticism on two counts: they break up the sequence of the narrative with the disproportionateness of the speeches they introduce, and they frustrate the enthusiasm of readers who are keen to acquire a knowledge of history.* [2] Surely, if someone wants to display his rhetorical skill, there is nothing to stop him composing speeches for politicians and ambassadors as a distinct pursuit, and the same goes for all other kinds of speeches—those that praise or find fault with their subjects,* for instance. After all, if he acknowledges that they are different genres of writing and works at each of these two pursuits separately, he might well expect to become highly regarded in both fields. [3] At present, however, some writers—those who over-indulge in rhetorical speeches—make history-writing a mere adjunct to oratory.
It is not only bad writing that puts readers off; they also dislike it when a work that seems to be successful in other respects fails in respect of the structure and proportionality* that properly belong to its genre. [4] Faced with such a work, some readers skip the speeches, however well done they appear to be, while the disproportionate wordiness of the author makes others lose interest, and they give up reading the work altogether. And this is not an unreasonable thing for them to do, [5] because a work of history should properly be a simple and organic whole. In short, it resembles a living body in that, if it is not unified, it loses its ability to please the mind, while if it retains its essential unity, its proportionality preserves that ability, and its overall organic unity makes the work enjoyable to read and comprehensible.
2. All the same, I do not entirely disapprove of the use of rhetorical speeches in a work of history and think they have absolutely no place at all. History should be embellished by variety, and there are passages where it is necessary to enlist the aid even of rhetorical speeches—and I too would not want to deny myself the opportunity to do so—which means that when the situation calls for a speech by an ambassador or a politician, or whatever kind of speech it may be, a writer who failed boldly to enter the rhetorical fray would be the one to deserve criticism. [2] I mean, there are a good many obvious reasons for feeling obliged to enlist the aid of rhetoric on a number of occasions. There have been many well-argued and elegant speeches, so one should not contemptuously omit those that deserve to be remembered and are valuable in a historical context, nor, when the subject is an important and glorious event, should one allow one’s language manifestly to fall short of the deeds being described. From time to time, when something unexpected happens, I shall have no choice but to make use of speeches* that are suitable for the purpose of casting light on an otherwise inexplicable event.
[3] But I have said enough on this, and I should now turn to the events of the period before us. But first I shall explain which years belong to the present book. In the preceding books, I have covered both Greek and non-Greek history from the earliest times down to the year before Agathocles’ expedition to Libya, which took place a total of 883 years after the sack of Troy.* In this book I shall add the history of the subsequent years; I shall cover nine years, starting with Agathocles’ invasion of Libya and ending with the year in which the kings formed a coalition and went to war against Antigonus, the son of Philip.
3. In the year of the Archonship of Hieromnemon in Athens, the Romans appointed as their consuls Gaius Julius and Quintus Aemilius.*
In Sicily, after his defeat by the Carthaginians at the Himeras river and the loss of the largest and best part of his army, Agathocles had taken refuge in Syracuse. [2] Under the circumstances—with all his allies having changed sides, and the barbarians in control of almost all Sicily except for Syracuse and outclassing him by far on land and at sea—he did something so utterly bold that no one could have foreseen it. [3] No one thought that he would even try to resist the Carthaginians, but he planned to leave an adequate guard for the city and to sail over to Libya with a select force of suitable soldiers.
In doing this, he had various hopes and expectations. He hoped to find the Carthaginians softened by long years of peace and, since they therefore had no experience of battles and fighting, he expected that they would easily be defeated by men who had been schooled by danger.* He hoped that the Libyan auxiliaries, who had long resented Carthaginian dominion, would seize the opportunity to rebel. He hoped, above all, that his unexpected appearance would enable him to plunder a land which had remained unravaged and which, thanks to Carthaginian prosperity, was filled with all kinds of good things. And, in general, he hoped to distract the barbarians from Syracuse and from Sicily as a whole, and transfer the war entirely over to Libya—which is exactly what happened.
4. He told none of his friends about this plan. He made his brother Antander responsible for the city and gave him an adequate guard, while he selected and enrolled suitable soldiers for the expedition. His orders to the infantry were that they should be ready with their arms and armour, and he told the cavalry to bring not only their panoplies, but also saddlecloths and bridles, so that, once he had captured some horses, there would be men with the necessary equipment ready to mount them. [2] The point was that, in the course of his recent defeat, even though it was the majority of his infantrymen who had been killed, while almost all the cavalrymen had survived, he was unable to transport their horses over to Libya. [3] To make sure that the Syracusans did not rise up in rebellion in his absence, he broke families up, focusing especially on separating brothers from brothers and fathers from sons, leaving some in the city and taking others with him over to Libya. [4] Obviously, affection for their offspring would deter those who remained in Syracuse from doing the slightest harm to Agathocles’ interests, even if they happened to be bitter enemies of the tyrant.
[5] To solve his money problems, he confiscated the estates of the city’s orphans from their trustees, claiming that he would make a far better guardian of the property than them and could be more relied on to return it to the children when they came of age, and in addition he took out loans from traders, seized some of the dedications that had been given to the temples,* and stripped the women of their jewellery. [6] Then, since it was clear that the majority of the wealthiest Syracusans found what he was doing abhorrent and were bitterly opposed to him, he convened an assembly. At this assembly he played up both the earlier defeat and the dangerous future that awaited them, saying that while he would† have no difficulty in enduring the siege, because he was accustomed to all kinds of hardship, he pitied his fellow citizens if they were shut up and forced to endure one. [7] If there were any men who were unwilling to endure what Fortune had in store for them, he said, they should save themselves and take their property with them. But once the wealthiest men, those who were particularly hostile to the dynast, had set out from the city, he sent some of his mercenaries after them, killed them, and took their property for himself. [8] At one fell swoop, he enriched himself and purged the city of his enemies, and then he gave all the slaves who were capable of military service their freedom.*
5. When everything was ready, Agathocles manned sixty ships and waited for a suitable opportunity to set sail. Since no one knew what his intentions were, people supposed either that he was planning to campaign in Italy or that he was going to lay waste to the Carthaginian-controlled part of Sicily. Everyone expected it to be a suicide mission and condemned the dynast for his lunacy. [2] But the enemy was blockading the harbour with a far larger number of ships than Agathocles had, so for a while he was forced to keep his soldiers on board, since he was unable to get out of the harbour. A few days later, however, some grain ships were running for the city and the Carthaginians set out with their entire fleet to attack them. Agathocles, who by then had begun to think that he would have to abandon the expedition, saw that the mouth of the harbour was clear of the blockading ships and rowed out at top speed.
[3] Next, when the Carthaginians, who were already closing in on the freighters, saw the enemy sailing in close formation, their initial assumption was that they were coming to the rescue of the grain ships, and they turned and made their fleet ready for battle. But when they saw Agathocles’ ships sailing straight past and pulling away, they set out in pursuit. [4] With the two fleets contending against each other, however, the freighters were suddenly out of danger, and they brought their plentiful supplies into Syracuse, which was already short of grain. And then Agathocles, who was about to be overtaken by the Carthaginians, was unexpectedly saved by nightfall. [5] On the next day, there occurred such a total solar eclipse that it might as well have been night, with stars visible all over the heavens.* But this only made Agathocles even more worried about what might happen, because he took the portent to be a harbinger of evil for him.
6. After a voyage of six days and nights, at dawn the Carthaginian fleet was suddenly spotted near by. Forced by this into awareness of the urgency of the situation, the two sides vied to out-row each other. The Phoenicians were motivated by the belief that the capture of the enemy ships would leave Syracuse at their mercy and at the same time free their country from extreme peril; the Greeks saw clearly the fate that awaited them if they did not make land before the Carthaginians reached them, and the horrors of slavery that awaited those who had been left behind at home. [2] When the Libyan coast came in sight, the crews of each fleet urged themselves on and redoubled their efforts. The barbarians’ ships were faster, because their oarsmen had put a lot of time and effort into their training, but the Greeks had a sufficient lead. The remaining distance was very quickly covered, and when they were close to land, the Greek ships drove for the beach together, like men in a race. [3] In fact, the last of Agathocles’ ships were within missile range, and the first of the Carthaginian ships were beginning to shoot at them. There was a brief engagement, involving bows and slings, and the barbarians joined battle with a few of the Greek ships, but with his superior numbers Agathocles had the best of it. At that point, the Carthaginians withdrew a short distance and lay at anchor outside of missile range, while Agathocles disembarked his forces (the place was called the Quarries), threw up a palisade from sea to sea, and beached his ships.
7. As if this venture had not been hazardous enough, Agathocles next set about another one, even more dangerous. He called for those of his senior officers who would do his bidding in this enterprise and with them by his side he sacrificed to Demeter and Korē* and then convened an assembly. [2] When the men had assembled, he stepped forward to speak, wearing a garland on his head and a magnificent himation.* After some preliminary remarks concerning the mission they had undertaken, he said that, while they were being pursued by the Carthaginians, he had made a vow to Demeter and Korē, the patron goddesses of Sicily, that he would make a burnt offering to them of the entire fleet.* [3] Now that they were safe, he said, it was right that he should fulfil his vow, and he said that these ships were nothing compared to the numbers he would replace them with if his men fought with determination. And in fact, he added, the goddesses had indicated by means of the sacrificial victims* that victory in the war as a whole would be his.
[4] While he was speaking, one of his attendants brought up a lighted brand. He took it in his hand and ordered brands to be distributed to all the captains of the ships, and then, calling on the goddesses as witnesses, he led the way by setting out for the command ship. He stood by the stern* and ordered the others to do the same. Then all the captains tossed their brands into their ships, and before long flames had risen into the air. The trumpeters sounded the signal for battle, the soldiers followed this with their battle-cry, and everyone prayed that they might return home safely.
[5] Agathocles’ main reason for doing this was to force his men to banish the idea of flight from their minds when they were in danger.* If there was no chance of their falling back on the ships, obviously their only hope of safety lay in victory. Besides, he did not have a large army, and plainly, if he had to protect the ships, he would have to divide his forces and that would make him no match for the enemy, whereas if he left them undefended he would be making a present of them to the Carthaginians.
8. Nevertheless, when all the ships were ablaze and the fire had taken extensive hold, fear gripped the Siceliots. Initially, they had been misled by Agathocles’ sorcery* and, since the speed with which he executed his plans allowed them no time for reflection, they had all gone along with what was happening. But when they had time to think about it in detail, they were overtaken by regret, and the thought of the vastness of the sea that lay between them and home made them despair of survival.
[2] Wanting to raise his men’s spirits, Agathocles led them against a Carthaginian town called Megalopolis. [3] The intervening countryside, through which they had to march, was divided into plots and fields growing every conceivable kind of plant, since the whole region was irrigated by water channelled through numerous sluices. Estate followed estate, with richly appointed, meticulously whitewashed houses which indicated the wealth of the owners. [4] The farm buildings were filled with things that were good to eat, since the locals had had many years of peace in which to lay in abundant stores of their products. The land was partly given over to vines and partly to a profusion of olives and other fruit-bearing trees. To left and right, herds of cattle and flocks of goats were being pastured on the plain, and the nearby fens teemed with horses out at grass. In short, the region was prosperous in every imaginable way, because the several owners of the estates were the most eminent Carthaginians and they had used their wealth to beautify them and make them pleasing.*
[5] The Siceliots were astounded by the beauty of the land and its prosperity, and they began to be more eager for the coming conflict when they saw that the prizes that would readily fall to the victors were commensurate with the risks they were running. [6] As soon as Agathocles saw that his men’s spirits were improving and that they were looking forward eagerly to battle, he launched an assault on the walls of Megalopolis. Partly because of the unexpectedness of the attack, and partly because of the inhabitants’ ignorance and inexperience of warfare, resistance was brief and he overran the town. He gave his troops permission to plunder, and this had the effect of simultaneously filling the camp with booty and his men with confidence.
[7] Agathocles next set out immediately for White Tunis,* as it is called, which lies about two thousand stades from Carthage, and gained the town’s submission. The soldiers were expecting to protect both the towns that had fallen to them, and they began depositing their booty in them, but Agathocles had further plans along the lines of what he had already done, and he explained to his men that it was in their interests to leave behind them no place of refuge until they had won a major battle. He therefore razed the towns to the ground and camped in the open countryside.
9. At first, the Carthaginians who were lying at anchor off the Siceliot beachhead were delighted when they saw the ships on fire, because they supposed that it was fear of them that had driven the Greeks to destroy their ships. But when they saw the enemy army advancing into the countryside, they thought over the consequences of the destruction of the ships and concluded that it was a disaster for them. They therefore draped hides over the prows of their ships, which is their invariable practice when something has happened that is held to be bad for the city of Carthage as a whole.* [2] They also took the bronze ram-sheaths of Agathocles’ ships and stowed them in their own vessels,* and sent messengers to Carthage to deliver a precise report about what had happened. But before these messengers arrived to deliver the news, some country folk who had seen Agathocles’ ships arrive rushed to Carthage with the information. [3] The Carthaginians had not been expecting anything like this, and in their fear they assumed that their own forces had been wiped out in Sicily—both the land army and the navy, they thought, because it seemed to them that Agathocles would never have dared to leave Syracuse undefended unless he had been victorious, and would never have ventured to transport his army across to Libya if the sea was still controlled by his enemies.
[4] Panic and confusion therefore gripped the city, the masses gathered in the agora, and the Council of Elders met to decide what to do. There was no armed force available with the ability to stand up to the enemy, the mass of citizens had no experience of war and were therefore already inclined to defeatism, and the enemy was expected outside the city walls. [5] Some of the Carthaginians were in favour of sending envoys to Agathocles to sue for peace—envoys who would double as spies to assess the enemy’s situation—while others thought they should wait until they had found out exactly what had happened. While the city was in this state of chaos, however, the messengers who had been sent by their admiral sailed in and explained what had happened.
10. Everyone’s confidence revived. The Council of Elders issued a collective reprimand to the officers of their navy for having let an enemy army land in Libya when they had control of the sea, and they gave the command of their forces to Hanno and Bomilcar. There was an ancestral feud between these two men, [2] and the Carthaginians thought that their mutual mistrust and enmity would secure the safety of the city as a whole,* but that was far from the truth. In fact, Bomilcar had for a long time aspired to tyranny, but he had not been strong enough and had never found the right moment for putting his plans into effect; but now, by being appointed general, it became significantly more feasible.
[3] The fundamental issue was the harshness of the Carthaginian system of punishment. At a time of war, they promote their leading men to commands, since they think it the duty of such men to be the first to brave danger for the state; but at a time of peace, out of envy they take these men to court on trumped-up charges and punish them. [4] Hence some of those who are given commands become rebels because they are afraid of being taken to court, while others attempt to set themselves up as tyrants. This is what one of the two generals, Bomilcar, did at the time in question, and I shall come back to him later.*
[5] Anyway, the Carthaginian generals could see that the situation did not favour the slightest delay, and without waiting for troops to arrive from the countryside and the allied cities,* they took the citizen militia out into the field. With this army of at least forty thousand foot, a thousand horse, and two thousand war chariots,* [6] they occupied a rise not far from the enemy and drew up their troops for battle. Hanno had the command of the right wing, which included the men assigned to the Sacred Battalion.* Bomilcar, in command of the left wing, drew up his men in a deep phalanx, since the terrain was not conducive to an extended front. They stationed the cavalry and the chariots in front of the phalanx, because they had decided to attack first with these units and test the mettle of the Greeks.
11. After checking the formation adopted by the barbarians, Agathocles gave the right wing to his son, Archagathus,* with the 2,500 foot that he had assigned him. Next to the right wing he posted the 3,500 Syracusans, then three thousand Greek mercenaries, and finally three thousand Samnites, Etruscans, and Celts. He himself, along with his bodyguard, fought at the head of the left wing,† pitting a thousand hoplites against the Carthaginian Sacred Battalion, and he divided the archers and slingers between the two wings. [2] His troops barely had sufficient arms and armour and, seeing that the galley crews were unarmed, he had stretchers of sticks made for the shield covers,* so that they had the circular appearance of a shield, and he distributed these fake shields to the men; they were completely useless, but from a distance they were able to give an impression of armour to anyone who did not know better.
[3] It was clear, however, that his troops were terrified by the numbers of the enemy cavalry and infantry,† so Agathocles ordered owls to be released into the lines at various points. He had laid in these owls beforehand as a way of dealing with poor morale among the rank-and-file soldiers. [4] They flew among the infantry lines, settling on shields and helmets, and the soldiers’ morale was boosted by what they all took as a portent, since the bird is supposed to be sacred to Athena.* [5] Some people might think the idea ridiculous, but this kind of thing† has often been responsible for significant victories.* And that is what happened on this occasion as well: their spirits rose, word was passed among the ranks that the goddess was unequivocally indicating that victory would be theirs, and they awaited the onset of battle with increased courage.
12. And so, when the battle opened with the chariots being sent against them, the Greeks shot some of them down and let others pass through their lines,* but they forced most of them to turn back towards their own infantry lines. [2] They withstood the cavalry charge too with equal success, shooting down enough of them to make the rest flee to the rear. But while they had been putting on a dazzling display of martial prowess in these preliminary stages of the battle, the entire barbarian infantry had come to close quarters [3] and a monumental battle took place. Hanno, who had the elite Sacred Battalion under his command and wanted to be personally responsible for victory, pressed hard on the Greeks and took many lives. He did not yield even under the barrage of missiles he encountered, but pushed forward despite being wounded many times, until at last he was worn down and died.
[4] After his death, Carthaginian spirits in that part of the field sank, while Agathocles’ men took heart and were greatly encouraged. [5] When messengers brought the news to Bomilcar, the other general, he thought that this was a gift from the gods and that the moment had come for him to seize the opportunity for his attempt on the tyranny. His reasoning was as follows: if Agathocles’ army was destroyed, he would not be able to launch his attempt to seize power because his fellow citizens would be strong. However, if Agathocles won, that would crush the Carthaginians’ spirits; the defeated people would readily submit to him and it would be easy for him to defeat Agathocles whenever he liked.
[6] Having come to this conclusion, he fell back, taking with him the soldiers of the front rank. To the enemy, this gift of a withdrawal was incomprehensible, but Bomilcar told his men about Hanno’s death and ordered them to pull back in good order to the rise, claiming that this was in their best interests. [7] But under the enemy’s assaults the whole retreat was beginning to resemble a rout, and the Libyans of the next ranks gained the impression that the first rank was being defeated by main force and turned to flight themselves. However, the officers who had taken charge of the Sacred Battalion since the death of Hanno, their general, put up a strong resistance for a while. Stepping over the bodies of those of their comrades who had fallen, they endured every hazard, but when they realized that the bulk of the army had turned to flight and that the enemy was starting to come at them from the rear, they had no choice but to fall back. [8] So, with the rout spreading throughout their army, the barbarians began fleeing in the direction of Carthage. Agathocles pursued them for a while, but then turned back and plundered their camp.
13. The Greeks lost about two hundred men in the battle, and the Carthaginians a thousand at the most, though some historians say they lost more than six thousand. Along with all the other booty, there was found in the Carthaginian camp a large number of carts which were being used to transport more than twenty thousand pairs of handcuffs. [2] The barbarians had been expecting to get the better of the Greeks without any difficulty, and had urged one another to take as many prisoners as possible and to throw them, cuffed, into slave workhouses. [3] But the gods, I think, make sure that, when people have arrogant expectations, the outcome is the opposite of what they had hoped. At any rate, Agathocles, after his unexpected victory, had the Carthaginians trapped within their city walls. But Fortune had success and failure play their parts alternately and humbled the victors no less than the defeated. [4] For in Sicily the Carthaginians had Syracuse under siege after their great defeat of Agathocles, while in Libya Agathocles had the Carthaginians pinned inside their city and under siege after having won a major battle, and the most surprising thing of all was that on the island, where Agathocles had had fresh forces, he proved inferior to the barbarians, while on the mainland he got the better of his conquerors with only a fraction of the army that had earlier been defeated.
14. That is why the Carthaginians believed that the disaster had been visited upon them by the gods and devoted themselves to supplicating heaven in every way imaginable. They thought that it was above all Heracles, the god of their founders,* who was angry with them, and they sent a very large sum of money and many of their most valuable dedications to Tyre. [2] Carthage was originally a colony of Tyre and it had been their custom in times past to send a tenth of all their revenues to the god, but later, even though they became very wealthy and had more substantial revenues, they sent hardly anything and neglected the god. But now this misfortune made them regret their neglect and remember all the gods of Tyre. [3] They even sent the golden temples, simulacra and all,* that had been dedicated in their sanctuaries, thinking that they would be more likely to mitigate the god’s wrath if his dedications were sent to appease him. [4] They thought that Cronus had turned against them as well,* because in times past they had sacrificed the best of their sons to this god, but later they started sending for sacrifice children they had secretly bought and brought up in their homes. An investigation took place, which revealed that a number of the children who had been destined for sacrifice were suppositious.
[5] Weighing these things in their minds, and seeing the enemy encamped right by the city walls, they were frightened that they had offended the gods by having abandoned the traditional ways of honouring them and were eager to redress their error. So they selected two hundred sons of the most distinguished families and sacrificed them in public, and in addition at least three hundred of those who were suspect volunteered to be sacrificed. [6] In Carthage, there was a bronze statue of Cronus with his arms stretched out, palms up, and inclining towards the ground, so that a child placed on the outstretched arms would roll off and fall into a fiery pit.* It seems likely that this is where Euripides got the idea for what he says about the legendary sacrifice in Tauris, in the lines where he has Orestes ask Iphigeneia ‘But what tomb will receive me when I die?’, and she replies: ‘A great pit in the earth, with sacred fire within.’* [7] And the traditional story the Greeks tell, based on ancient legend, that Cronus did away with his children,* seems to have been perpetuated among the Carthaginians by means of this custom.
15. Be that as it may, after this reversal in Libya, the Carthaginians wrote to Hamilcar in Sicily, asking him to send reinforcements at the earliest possible opportunity, and they sent him the bronze ram-sheaths they had taken from Agathocles’ ships. When the messengers arrived, Hamilcar ordered them to keep quiet about the defeat they had suffered, and instead to spread the word among the troops that not just Agathocles’ ships, but his entire army had been completely wiped out.* [2] Then he sent some of these new arrivals from Carthage into Syracuse as envoys to demand the surrender of the city on the grounds that their army had been annihilated by the Carthaginians and their fleet burnt. If anyone doubted the truth of this, he offered proof in the form of his possession of the rams.
[3] When the inhabitants of the city were told about the alleged disaster that Agathocles had suffered, the masses believed it to be true, but the city officials were not entirely convinced. They made sure that the city remained peaceful and they lost no time in sending the envoys out of the city, but they also banished at least eight thousand people, who were either the relatives and friends of men they had exiled or others who were opposed to what they were doing.* [4] With such a large number of people suddenly forced to leave their homeland, the streets were filled with people running here and there, and with confused noise and wailing women, because there was no household that did not have its share of grief at this time. [5] Some of Agathocles’ sympathizers were lamenting the fate of the tyrant and his children; some of the ordinary citizens were mourning those who (as they thought) had been lost in Libya, while others were weeping for the men who were being expelled from hearth and ancestral gods, who were not allowed to stay in the city, but could not go outside the walls either because of the ongoing siege by the barbarians, and who, on top of all this misery, great as it was, were also being forced to involve their infant children and wives as well, and drag them too into exile. [6] In fact, however, any exiles who turned to Hamilcar for safety were afforded his protection. He then got his army ready and led it against Syracuse. He expected the city to fall to him, not just because there was no one left to defend it, but also because those who remained in the city knew of the alleged disaster in Libya.
16. Hamilcar sent envoys to convey his offer of safety for Antander and his colleagues in return for their surrendering the city. The most senior of the city’s leaders met in council, and after a lot of discussion Antander—who was a weak man,* with none of his brother’s boldness and energy—concluded that it would be best if they surrendered the city. Erymnon of Aetolia,* however, who had been appointed by Agathocles to join his brother on the council, expressed the opposite opinion and persuaded the council to persevere until they had accurate information about what had happened. [2] When Hamilcar learnt of the council’s decision, he set about constructing various siege engines, since he had decided to go on the offensive.
[3] But Agathocles had built two thirty-oared ships after the battle, and he sent one of them to Syracuse, rowed by his best oarsmen and commanded by Nearchus, a trusted friend, to bring news of his victory. [4] After an easy voyage they approached Syracuse during the night of the fifth day and at dawn they were about to sail into the harbour, garlanded and singing paeans as they went, [5] but the Carthaginians’ picket ships saw them coming and hastened to intercept them. Since the ship they were pursuing had no great lead, it became a rowing race, and while they were vying with each other in this way, both the Syracusans and the besiegers, who had seen what was happening, ran to the harbour and each side began to shout encouragement to their men. [6] Soon the thirty-oared ship was on the point of being overtaken, and the barbarians cried out in triumph, while the Syracusans, unable to bring concrete help, prayed that the gods would save the lives of those who were trying to sail in. Now they were close to land and one of the Carthaginian ships was manoeuvring to ram its quarry, but the Greeks thwarted their pursuers by coming within missile range, and now that the men from the city could help, the ship escaped danger.
[7] However, when Hamilcar saw that in their anxiety and in anticipation of some extraordinary news the Syracusans had flocked to the harbour, it occurred to him that a certain part of the wall might be unguarded and he sent his best men there with scaling ladders. Finding that the guards had indeed left their posts, they scaled the wall without interference and had almost completed their takeover of an entire stretch of curtain wall when a patrol, making its usual rounds, arrived and spotted them, [8] and battle was joined. The Syracusans ran up to help and, since they arrived before their opponents could reinforce the men who had scaled the wall, a massacre ensued, with some of the enemy being thrown from the battlements. [9] Hamilcar was deeply disappointed by this, and he withdrew his forces from the city and sent help to Carthage in the form of five thousand soldiers.
17. Meanwhile, Agathocles, who already had control of the countryside, was engaged in taking the strongholds near Carthage by storm, and he won the towns over to his side either by frightening them into submission or, in some cases, by exploiting their hatred of the Carthaginians. After building a fortified camp near Tunis and leaving a fair-sized guard for it, he set out against the cities on the coast. The first, Neapolis,* he took by storm, but he treated the inhabitants well once they had fallen into his hands. Then he marched against Hadrumetum,* which he put under siege, and he gained Aelymas, the king of the Libyans, as an ally.
[2] When the Carthaginians found out what was happening, they marched against Tunis at full strength. They captured Agathocles’ camp, brought siege engines up to the city, and began to launch wave after wave of assaults. [3] When messengers brought news of the loss of his camp, Agathocles left the bulk of his forces to continue the siege, and with his bodyguard and a few other soldiers he stealthily made his way to a place in the mountains from where he could be seen by both the people of Hadrumetum and the Carthaginians who were besieging Tunis. [4] That night, he had his men light fires over a large area, which gave the Carthaginians the impression that he was bringing a substantial army against them, and made the people pinned inside Hadrumetum believe that another powerful army had arrived to support their enemies. [5] Both the Carthaginians and the people of Hadrumetum were taken in by the stratagem* and suffered unexpected defeats as a result, with those who were besieging Tunis abandoning their engines and fleeing to Carthage, and the people of Hadrumetum surrendering their city out of fear. [6] After negotiating the terms of the surrender, Agathocles next took Thapsus by force, and the other towns in the region were either besieged into submission or negotiated their surrender. Once all the towns and cities had submitted to him—and there were more than two hundred of them—he planned to campaign next in inland Libya.
18. After Agathocles had set out and had been on the march for quite a few days, the Carthaginians took to the field with the army that had been brought over from Sicily and with the rest of their forces. They set about besieging Tunis for a second time and recaptured many of the strongholds that were in enemy hands. As soon as messengers arrived from Tunis and informed Agathocles about the Phoenician offensive, he turned back, [2] and when he was two hundred stades away from the enemy, he made camp and ordered his soldiers to light no fires. Then he marched through the night, and at dawn fell on those who were foraging in the countryside and others who were wandering around outside the camp and out of formation. He killed over two thousand of these men and took many prisoners. This gave his confidence a substantial boost for the future, [3] because the addition of the reinforcements from Sicily and the support of their Libyan allies had seemed to give the Carthaginians the advantage, but after this successful strike of his the barbarians’ spirits were again crushed. In fact, Agathocles also defeated Aelymas, the Libyan king, who had deserted his cause, and in the battle many of the barbarians lost their lives, including the king. That was how things stood in Sicily and Libya.
19. As for Macedonian affairs, Cassander went to help Audoleon, the king of the Paeonians, in his war with the Autariatae.* He not only saved his life, but he also resettled about twenty thousand of the Autariatae, along with the children and womenfolk who went with them, at Mount Orbelus. [2] While he was engaged with this, Ptolemaeus, who was responsible for Antigonus’ Peloponnesian army, feeling that the dynast had treated him badly and that he was not being treated with the respect he deserved, defected from Antigonus and entered into an alliance with Cassander. Moreover, he deputized Phoenix, one of his closest friends who was the governor of the satrapy on the Hellespont, sent him soldiers, and asked him to garrison the fortresses and towns and to defy Antigonus.
[3] By the terms of the mutual agreement entered into by the dynasts,* the Greek cities were to be left free, so Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt, accused Antigonus of garrisoning the cities* and prepared to go to war. [4] He dispatched his army with Leonidas in command and gained the submission of the cities in Rough Cilicia that were subject to Antigonus. He also wrote to the cities that were subject to Cassander and Lysimachus, asking them to help him put an end to the growth of Antigonus’ power.* [5] But Antigonus sent his youngest son Philip to the Hellespont to tackle Phoenix and the rebels there, and he sent Demetrius to Cilicia, where he conducted a vigorous campaign in which he defeated Ptolemy’s generals and recovered the cities.
20. Meanwhile, Polyperchon was in the Peloponnese, nursing his grudge against Cassander.* He had for a long time aspired to supremacy in Macedon, and he now summoned Heracles, the son of Barsine, from Pergamum.* Heracles, who was about seventeen years old, was the son of Alexander the Great and was being brought up in Pergamum. [2] Polyperchon wrote around to his personal friends and anyone who was hostile towards Cassander, asking them to restore the young man to his father’s kingdom, [3] and he also wrote to the Aetolian Confederacy, asking them to grant him safe passage through their territory and to support his war effort, and promising to repay the favour many times over if they helped restore the young man to his father’s kingdom. Everything went according to plan. The Aetolians had no hesitation in complying with his wishes,* many others joined forces for the purpose of restoring the king, and they ended up with an army of more than twenty thousand foot and at least a thousand horse. [4] In the course of preparing for war, Polyperchon also set about collecting money and writing to solicit support from his friends in Macedon.
21. When Ptolemy, who held sway over the cities of Cyprus, was told by some informants that Nicocles, the king of Paphos,* had secretly entered into a pact of friendship with Antigonus, he sent two of his friends, Argaeus and Callicrates, to kill Nicocles. He was keen to guard against the possibility that any of the other kings might be moved to change sides by seeing that earlier rebels had got away with it. So Argaeus and Callicrates sailed to the island, and once they had been given soldiers by Menelaus, the governor, they surrounded Nicocles’ house, informed him of the king’s wishes, and ordered him to take his own life.
[2] At first, Nicocles tried to defend himself against the charges, but when his pleas fell on deaf ears he killed himself. When Axiothea, Nicocles’ wife, heard of her husband’s death, she killed her daughters, who were virgins, to make sure that no enemy possessed them, and urged the wives of Nicocles’ brothers to join her in choosing death, although Ptolemy had not ordered the wives’ deaths and had even agreed to leave them alive. [3] With the royal residence a bloodbath, overwhelmed by unforeseen calamity, Nicocles’ brothers locked the doors, set fire to the house, and committed suicide. So the house of the kings of Paphos came to an end in this tragic fashion.* And now that I have given an account of what happened in Cyprus, I shall resume my sequential account of events.
22. In the Black Sea region, in the course of this year, following the death of Parysades, the king of the Cimmerian Bosporus,* his sons, Eumelus, Satyrus, and Prytanis, were fighting one another for supremacy. [2] The eldest son, Satyrus, had been bequeathed the throne by his father (who had reigned for thirty-eight years), but Eumelus had entered into a pact of friendship with some of the neighbouring barbarians and, once he had raised a formidable army, he began to challenge his brother’s claim to the throne. [3] When Satyrus found out, he took to the field against Eumelus in strength. He crossed the river Thates,* halted close to the enemy position, and protected his camp by surrounding it with the very large number of wagons he had used to transport supplies. Then he drew up his men for battle, with himself in the centre, in command of the phalanx, as is the Scythian custom. [4] In his army there were close to two thousand Greek mercenaries and the same number of Thracians, and all the rest were his Scythian allies, numbering twenty thousand foot and at least ten thousand horse. But Eumelus had Aripharnes, the king of the Siraces, as an ally, who had twenty thousand horse and twenty-two thousand foot under his command.
[5] A fierce battle took place, and Satyrus, supported by his elite cavalry, joined battle with Aripharnes, who had stationed himself in the middle of the line. After heavy losses on both sides, Satyrus eventually overwhelmed and routed the barbarian king. [6] He harried the fugitives for a while, killing those he caught up with, but before long it was brought to his attention that his brother Eumelus was winning on the right wing, where his mercenaries had been routed, so he gave up the pursuit and went to help his defeated men. And so for the second time he became responsible for victory; he forced the entire enemy army to turn and flee, making it clear to everyone that, in addition to being the eldest, he also had the prowess that made him the proper successor to his father’s kingdom.
23. After their defeat in this battle, Aripharnes and Eumelus fled to Aripharnes’ capital city, which was situated on the Thates river. Since the river flowed around the fortress city and was good and deep, access was difficult, and it was also surrounded by lofty crags and dense woods. In fact, there were no more than two means of entry, both man-made. One of them was in the royal castle itself and was protected by high towers and outworks, while the other approach, in marshy ground on the opposite side of the city, was protected by wooden barricades and supported at intervals by piles, and there were houses on it, raised above the water. Given how secure the place was, Satyrus at first ravaged the enemy’s farmland and set fire to villages, where he obtained captives and a great deal of booty, [2] but then he turned to an attempt to force the approaches. On the side where there were the outworks and towers, he lost a lot of men and pulled back, but on the marshy side, he overran and captured the wooden barricades. [3] After tearing these down† and crossing the river, he began to cut down the trees in the woodland through which he had to pass in order to reach the royal castle.
While Satyrus’ men were going about this with a will, King Aripharnes, worried that his citadel might end up being overrun, fought back with great boldness, since he knew that only victory would bring him safety. [4] He sent archers to positions on both sides of the approach, which made it easy for him to shoot down the men who were cutting down the trees, because they were prevented by the density of the woods from having advance warning of incoming arrows and from fighting back against those who were firing them. [5] For three days Satyrus’ men cleared the woods and created a way through them, barely enduring the ordeal, and on the fourth day they drew near the city wall, but victory was denied them by the barrage of arrows and the cramped conditions, and they sustained great losses. [6] In fact, Meniscus, the commander of the mercenaries, a man of exceptional intelligence and daring, pushed on along the approach and reached the walls, but after a brilliant display of martial prowess he and his men were forced back when a far stronger force made a sortie against them.
[7] When Satyrus saw that Meniscus was in trouble, he came to help. He stood firm against the enemy charge, but was wounded in the arm by a spear. He returned to the encampment, but in the night he died, after a reign of only nine months following the death of his father, Parysades. [8] Meniscus, the commander of the mercenaries, abandoned the siege and led the army away to Gargaza, and from there he conveyed the king’s body by way of the river to his brother Prytanis at Panticapaeum.
24. After giving his brother a magnificent funeral and laying his body to rest in the royal tombs, Prytanis went to Gargaza and took over both the army and the reins of power. Through envoys, Eumelus raised the possibility of dividing the kingdom between them, but Prytanis ignored him, and after leaving a garrison in Gargaza he returned to Panticapaeum in order to secure the kingdom for himself. But Eumelus used this time to seize Gargaza with the help of his barbarian allies, and also a number of other towns and strongholds. [2] When Prytanis marched against him, Eumelus defeated his brother in battle, trapped him on the isthmus near Lake Maeotis, and forced him to come to terms, according to which he was to hand over the army and cede the kingdom. But when Prytanis arrived in Panticapaeum, which had always been the royal seat of the rulers of Bosporus, he made another attempt to recover the kingdom; he lacked the strength to succeed, however, and he fled to the so-called Gardens, where he was killed. [3] After his brother’s death, in order to secure his rule, Eumelus killed not just the friends of Satyrus and Prytanis, but also their wives and children. The only one to escape was Satyrus’ son Parysades, who was very young; he fled on horseback out of the city and found refuge with Agarus, the king of the Scythians.*
[4] The murder of their friends and relatives angered the citizens of Panticapaeum, however, so Eumelus convened an assembly, at which he justified the killings and restored the ancestral political system.* In addition to granting them the exemption from taxes which the residents of Panticapaeum had enjoyed in the time of their forebears, he promised to impose no more wealth taxes at all* and raised the possibility of other measures in his desire to win the favour of the masses. [5] Soon the concord of earlier times was restored throughout the city thanks to his benefactions, and from then on he ruled as Archon* over his subjects, abiding by the laws and winning an extraordinary degree of admiration for his goodness.
25. He was a constant benefactor of the Byzantines and the Sinopeans, for instance, as well as the other Greeks living on the Black Sea. When Lysimachus had Callatis under siege* and the inhabitants were suffering badly from lack of provisions, he took in a thousand men who had been driven out by starvation. Not only did he make them safe by granting them refuge, but he even gave them a place to live, and also divided up Psoa, as it is called, and its farmland into lots for them. [2] In order to protect shipping in the Black Sea, he waged war against the barbarians who practised piracy—the Heniochians, the Taurians, and the Achaeans*—and cleared the sea of pirates. The upshot was that he reaped the finest harvest from his good deeds—the harvest of acclaim—not only in his kingdom, but throughout almost all the world, as merchants spread the news of his magnanimity. [3] He also annexed much of the neighbouring barbarian land, thereby adding considerably to the lustre of his kingdom.
In a word, Eumelus made it his objective to subdue all the peoples who lived on the Black Sea, and he probably would have succeeded if his life had not been cut short. But in fact he died after a reign of five years and five months, as a result of an unusual accident. [4] He was returning home one day from Sindice,* hurrying to get back in time for a sacrifice, and was heading towards the royal residence on a wagon drawn by four horses—one of those wagons with four wheels and a canopy—when the horses took fright and bolted with him. The driver was unable to keep hold of the reins and Eumelus, afraid of being carried down a ravine, tried to jump out of the wagon. But his sword got caught in one of the wheels, and he was dragged along at high speed and died instantly.
26. There were oracles in existence about the deaths of the brothers, Eumelus and Satyrus—oracles that were rather inane, but were nevertheless believed by the people of Bosporus. They say that Satyrus had been warned by the god to beware lest a mouse caused his death. Because of this, first he allowed none of those in his service, slave or free, to have that name, and then he was afraid of mice, whether in the home or the fields, and was always ordering his slaves to kill them and block up their holes. But, although he did everything possible and employed every means he could think of to cheat his destiny, he died after being wounded in the arm—in the ‘mouse’.* [2] In Eumelus’ case, the oracle warned him to beware of a moving house, and so he, in his turn, was never comfortable entering a house unless his slaves had first inspected the roof and the foundations. But when he died, everyone considered the prophecy fulfilled because of the canopy on his wagon.
Moving on from events in Bosporus, [3] in Italy the Roman consuls invaded enemy territory† and defeated the Samnites at a place called Talium. After the defeat, the Samnites occupied Sacred Hill, as it is called, and since night had fallen the Romans pulled back to their camp. On the next day, however, battle was joined once more. Many of the Samnites were killed and more than 2,200 were taken prisoner. [4] These victories were so decisive for the Romans that from then on the consuls had secure control of the countryside and set about subduing rebel towns. They besieged Cataracta and Ceraunilia* into submission and installed garrisons in them, but they used diplomacy to gain the submission of some of the other towns.
27. In the year of the Archonship of Demetrius of Phalerum* in Athens, in Rome Quintus Fabius (for the second time) and Gaius Marcius obtained the consulate. In this year:
King Ptolemy* of Egypt’s response to the news that his generals had lost the Cilician cities was to sail at strength to Phaselis. He besieged the city into submission and then moved on to Lycia, where he assaulted and took Xanthus, which had been garrisoned by Antigonus. [2] Then he sailed on to Caunus, and once he had made the lower town his, he turned his attention to the acropolises, which had garrisons. He had to use force to take the Heracleum, but the Persicum fell to him when the garrison surrendered. [3] After that,* he sailed to Cos, where he sent for Ptolemaeus, who, despite being Antigonus’ nephew and despite having been entrusted with an army, had forsaken his uncle* and was offering to cooperate with Ptolemy.* So Ptolemaeus sailed from Chalcis and arrived in Cos. At first, Ptolemy received him graciously, but then it came to his attention that Ptolemaeus had started to act impudently and was using diplomacy and gifts to try to gain the personal loyalty of Ptolemy’s officers. Afraid that Ptolemaeus might be hatching a plot against him, Ptolemy arrested him before he could act and compelled him to drink hemlock.* As for the soldiers who had come with Ptolemaeus, he won them over with promises and had them join his own army.
28. Meanwhile, Polyperchon, with the substantial army he had raised, brought Heracles, the son of Alexander and Barsine, back to his father’s kingdom. He made camp in Stymphaea,* and while he was there Cassander arrived with an army. The two camps were quite close to each other, and since the Macedonians were not displeased at the return of the king, Cassander became afraid, given their habitual fickleness, that they might desert and go over to Heracles.* He therefore sent envoys to Polyperchon [2] and tried to get him to understand that, once restored, the king would be under the influence of others, not Polyperchon. However, he said, if Polyperchon joined forces with him and killed the young man, in the first place he would immediately receive the estates that had formerly been his in Macedon; secondly, he would be given an army and appointed General of the Peloponnese;* and thirdly, he would be an equal partner in everything in Cassander’s realm and would occupy the highest rank.
Cassander eventually won Polyperchon over with his plentiful and bountiful promises; he entered into a secret agreement with him and persuaded him to assassinate the king. [3] Once Polyperchon had done away with the young man* and was openly working with Cassander, he recovered his estates in Macedon and, in accordance with his agreement with Cassander, was given four thousand Macedonian foot soldiers and five hundred Thessalian horsemen. [4] Once he had also gained the support of a number of other volunteers, he tried to lead his army through Boeotia to the Peloponnese, but he was prevented from doing so by the Boeotians and Peloponnesians,* so he turned back to Locris and passed the winter there.
29. Meanwhile, Lysimachus founded a city in the Chersonese which was called Lysimachea after himself, and Cleomenes, the king of the Lacedaemonians, died after a reign of sixty years and ten months.* He was succeeded by <Areus, the grandson of Cleomenes and son of Acrotatus,>† who reigned for forty-four years.
[2] In this year, the last of the outposts fell to Hamilcar, the commander of the Carthaginian forces in Sicily, and then he advanced with his army against Syracuse, intent on taking it by storm, just as he had the outposts. [3] His long-established control of the sea enabled him to prevent any grain from getting into the city, and after destroying the crops that were growing on the farmland, he intended to take over the area around the Olympieium*—an area that lay close to the city walls. But no sooner had he got there than he decided to launch his assault on the city straight away, because his seer had assured him, after inspecting the sacrificial victims, that he would dine in Syracuse on the following day.
[4] When the Syracusans saw what the enemy were up to, they sent out under cover of darkness about three thousand foot and about four hundred horse to occupy Euryelus,* [5] and these men promptly carried out their mission. But the Carthaginians brought up their forces during the night, thinking that they would not be spotted by the enemy. Hamilcar was out in front with his usual bodyguard, and he was followed by Deinocrates, who had been put in charge of the cavalry. [6] Then came the infantry, which had been divided into two phalanxes, one made up of non-Greeks and the other of Greek auxiliaries. And the army was followed by a varied horde of non-combatants who were there to enrich themselves. So far from having any use at all in military terms, such people are the cause of confusion and mindless turmoil, factors which are often responsible for endangering an entire campaign. [7] On this occasion too, since the roads were narrow and rough, the men who were carrying equipment and some of the non-combatant camp-followers kept jostling one another as they competed for space on the road. With large numbers of people crowded together in a narrow space, inevitably brawls broke out here and there, and many men joined in on one side or the other to help their comrades. The upshot was that the army became predominantly a scene of shouting and considerable confusion.
[8] At this point, the Syracusans on Euryelus, who could see that their adversaries were approaching in disorder and who had the superior position, charged the Carthaginians. [9] Some stood on the heights and shot at the enemy as they approached; some seized favourable positions and made it impossible for the barbarians to proceed down the road; others forced fugitives to hurl themselves down from the crags. Because of the darkness, which prevented them from knowing the truth, the Carthaginians assumed that the Syracusans were attacking in force. [10] They were already at a disadvantage because of the confusion in their ranks, and the sudden appearance of the enemy was another factor, but the main determinants of their discomfiture were their ignorance of the terrain and the lack of space. And so they turned and fled, but since the terrain offered no open escape route, some were trampled by their own horsemen, of whom there were many, while others mistook one another for enemies and fell to fighting, since the darkness prevented them from knowing the truth. [11] Hamilcar stood his ground bravely against the enemy for a while and expected his guard to face the danger along with him; but after a while, demoralized and frightened, they abandoned him. Left all alone, he was seized and carried off by the Syracusans.
30. It would not be out of place to note here the inconstancy of Fortune and the peculiar way in which men’s achievements turn out contrary to expectations. After all, Agathocles, an exceptionally brave man who had a substantial army fighting with him at the Himeras river, was not only decisively defeated by the barbarians, but also lost the best and largest part of his army, whereas the men who had been left behind in Syracuse to defend the walls, who constituted only a fraction of the army that had already been beaten, not only defeated the barbarian besieging force, but also captured their general, Hamilcar, the most illustrious of the Carthaginians. And the most amazing thing of all was that 120,000 foot and five thousand horse were overwhelmingly defeated by the clever use, by only a small number of enemies, of deception and the terrain—thus proving the truth of the saying that there are many needless alarms in war.
[2] After the rout, the Carthaginians scattered here and there, and it was only with difficulty that they regrouped on the following day. Meanwhile, the Syracusans returned to the city laden with booty and handed Hamilcar over to those who wanted to punish him. People also recalled the pronouncement of the seer who had said that Hamilcar would dine the next day in Syracuse; the gods were telling the truth, but in a misleading manner. [3] The relatives of those who had died led Hamilcar in chains through the city, tortured him horribly, and then killed him in the most humiliating fashion imaginable. Then the rulers of the city cut off his head and sent it to Agathocles in Libya, along with news of their victory.
31. Understanding how they had come to be defeated, as the Carthaginian soldiers did after the defeat, hardly relieved them of their fears. Since there was no overall leadership, the barbarians and their Greek allies went separate ways: [2] the exiles and the other Greeks chose Deinocrates as their general, and the Carthaginians put themselves in the hands of the officers who had been second in rank behind Hamilcar.
At this juncture, the Acragantines decided to make a bid for supremacy on Sicily; they could see that, given the situation there, they would never have a better opportunity. [3] Their thinking was that the Carthaginians would continue to resist Agathocles, even if with difficulty; that Deinocrates would be easy to defeat since he had only an army of exiles at his disposal; that the Syracusans were too reduced by starvation to attempt to make a bid for pre-eminence themselves; and, most importantly, that since the purpose of the campaign was the liberation of the Greek cities,* everyone would gladly follow their lead, partly out of hatred of the barbarians, and partly because of the desire for self-determination that is innate in all men.
[4] They therefore chose Xenodicus* as their general, gave him an appropriately large army, and sent him out to wage war. His first target was Gela. He was let in by personal friends of his under cover of darkness, and gained control of the city along with its powerful army and its wealth. [5] After their liberation, the Geloans committed their entire levy to the campaign and wholeheartedly set about freeing the cities. As word spread throughout the island about what the Acragantines were up to, the desire for freedom took hold in the cities. The people of Enna were first: they sent envoys and surrendered their city to the Acragantines, who freed the city and then went to Herbessus,* where the town was defended by a garrison. A fierce battle took place, in which the people of Herbessus supported the Acragantines, and in the end the garrison was captured; losses on the barbarian side were heavy, but about five hundred of them laid down their weapons and surrendered.
32. While the Acragantines were engaged in freeing these cities, some of the troops whom Agathocles had left in Syracuse seized Echetla* and plundered land belonging to Leontini and Camarina. [2] The ravaging of their farmland and the utter destruction of their crops left the cities in a bad way, so Xenodicus went there and not only made the people of Leontini and Camarina safe, but he also besieged the stronghold of Echetla into submission, gave the citizens back their former democratic constitution, and cowed the Syracusans into withdrawing. But, essentially, wherever he went he freed fortresses and towns from Carthaginian dominion.
[3] Meanwhile, the Syracusans, stricken by starvation, heard that grain ships were setting out for their city. They manned twenty triremes, waited until the barbarians who usually blockaded the harbour were off guard, and then slipped out of the harbour and sailed up the coast to Megara,* where they looked for the arrival of the traders. [4] But then the Carthaginians sent thirty ships against them. At first, the fighting took place at sea, as the Syracusans intended, but before long they had been driven ashore at a certain temple of Hera, where they leapt overboard. [5] Then a battle was fought for the ships. The Carthaginians attached grappling hooks and captured ten triremes by dragging them from the shore by sheer force, but the rest were saved when men came to help from Megara. That was how things stood in Sicily.
33. In Libya, when the Syracusans who were bringing Hamilcar’s head arrived, Agathocles took it and rode past the enemy camp, close enough to be within hearing distance, showing it to the enemy and making it clear that their army had been defeated. [2] The Carthaginians were deeply distressed. Treating the king’s death as catastrophic for themselves, they prostrated themselves on the ground, like the barbarians they were, and they were plunged into deep despair as regards the war as a whole. In Agathocles’ case, however, since he was already elated by his victories in Libya, these further great successes served to make his hopes soar with the thought that he need be afraid no longer.
[3] Fortune, however, did not allow success to take up a permanent post, but arranged for Agathocles’ own soldiers to be the cause of the greatest danger for him. What happened was that Agathocles invited one of his senior officers, Lyciscus, to dine with him, and in his cups Lyciscus insulted the dynast. [4] Agathocles, for his part, passed off his words as a jest, even though they had been spoken in bitter anger, because he valued the man for his usefulness in war. But his son Archagathus was furious, and he reprimanded Lyciscus and threatened him. [5] As they were returning to their quarters after the symposium was over, Lyciscus reviled Archagathus for his illicit affair with his stepmother—it was widely believed that he was having sex with Alcia (that was the woman’s name) behind his father’s back. [6] Goaded into an overpowering rage, Archagathus snatched a spear from one of the Household Guard and thrust it through Lyciscus’ ribs.
Lyciscus died instantly and his body was carried back to his quarters by his attendants. In the morning the friends of the murdered man met. They were incensed about the murder, and once they had also been joined by many of the other soldiers, they threw the entire camp into disorder. [7] A number of the senior officers as well, who feared for their lives because the mob had its doubts about them, turned the situation to their advantage and fanned the flames of what became a prodigious mutiny. With the whole army condemning the murder, men set about donning their armour with the intention of punishing the killer. The upshot was that the mob decided that Archagathus should be put to death, and that if Agathocles failed to surrender his son to them, he should be punished in Archagathus’ place; [8] and another of their demands was that they should be paid their overdue wages. They chose generals to take command of the army, and in the end some of them seized the walls of Tunis, so that, wherever they turned, the dynasts found themselves surrounded by armed guards.
34. When the Carthaginians learnt of the mutiny in the enemy camp, they sent agents to try to persuade Agathocles’ men to change sides, by promising them a pay increase and substantial rewards, and not a few of Agathocles’ officers did undertake to bring their forces over to them.* [2] Agathocles, however, who could see that his life was hanging in the balance and was afraid of being handed over to the enemy and dying a humiliating death, decided that it would be better, if he was bound to die anyway, for him to be killed by his own men. [3] So he exchanged his purple-dyed robes for humble, everyday apparel and stepped up to face the mob.
Silence fell at this unusual behaviour, and when a large crowd had gathered he addressed them in words that suited the seriousness of the situation. He reminded them of his earlier achievements and said that he was ready to die, if that was what his men decided was best for them, [4] because he had never been the kind of man who, under the influence of cowardice, allowed himself to be treated monstrously just in order to save his life. They themselves would witness the truth of this, he said as he drew his sword and made as if to kill himself. But just as he was about to strike, the army shouted out and stayed his hand, and from every side voices arose exonerating him from the charges. [5] The crowd urged him to take up his royal robes once more, so with tears in his eyes and expressions of gratitude to the people on his lips, he dressed himself as suited his station, as the crowd smoothed the way to his restoration with cheers and applause.
All this time the Carthaginians had been waiting, in the expectation that the Greeks would be defecting at any moment, but instead Agathocles seized the opportunity and led his forces against them. [6] The barbarians had no idea of what was really going on and thought that the enemy were coming over to their side. When Agathocles was quite close to the enemy position, he suddenly ordered the signal for battle to be sounded, launched into the attack, and set about slaughtering them. This misadventure was the last thing the Carthaginians had been expecting, and after taking heavy casualties they fled for safety to their camp. [7] So Agathocles, who had come close to losing his life thanks to his son, not only found a way out of his difficulties by drawing on his natural gifts, but defeated the enemy as well. But the ringleaders of the mutiny and others who were hostile towards Agathocles—more than two hundred men in all—did indeed go so far as to desert to the Carthaginians.
Having covered what was happening in Libya and Sicily, I shall now give an account of events in Italy. 35. When the Etruscans marched against Sutrium,* a Roman colony, the consuls took to the field at strength to relieve the town. They defeated the Etruscans in battle and drove them back to their camp, [2] but the Samnites used this time, while the Roman forces were far away, to raid the territory of the Iapygian communities which were loyal to Rome,* knowing that they would not meet any opposition. The consuls were therefore obliged to divide their forces, and while Fabius stayed in Etruria, Marcius set out against the Samnites. He assaulted and took the town of Allifae,* and brought relief to the cities allied to Rome which were being besieged by the Samnites.
[3] As Etruscan reinforcements arrived in large numbers to renew their attack on Sutrium, Fabius stealthily marched through the territory of their neighbours and invaded inland Etruria, which had remained unplundered for many years. [4] No one had been expecting this, and he laid waste a great deal of farmland. He defeated the local inhabitants whenever they came out against him and, although many were killed, he also took a good number alive as prisoners. Then he won a second battle at Perusia against the Etruscans, who suffered heavy casualties and became disheartened, because no Roman army had ever before been seen in those parts. [5] He arranged a truce with the peoples of Arretium, Cortona, and Perusia,* and his siege of Castola* forced the Etruscans to raise the siege of Sutrium.
36. In Rome in this year censors were elected,* and one of them, Appius Claudius (his colleague was Lucius Plautius),* made a number of changes to the ways in which things had traditionally been done, because his measures were designed to please the common people and he took no account of the Senate. In the first place, he built the so-called Appian Aqueduct to bring water to Rome from a distance of eighty stades* and spent a large amount of public money on its construction without obtaining a senatorial decree. [2] Then he paved most of the Appian Way (named after him) with solid blocks of stone—all the way from Rome to Capua, a distance of more than a thousand stades; since the work involved cutting through elevated ground and creating substantial embankments to raise gullies and hollows to ground level, he expended the entire revenue of the state,* but left an undying monument to himself, as one who worked tirelessly for the public good.
[3] He also diluted the purity of the Senate by enrolling not just well-born men of high rank, as was customary, but also many sons of freedmen as well—a measure which was deeply offensive to men who were proud of their noble birth. [4] He also gave citizens the right to be registered in whichever tribes they wanted and to be included in the census classes of their choice.* In short, seeing the great store of enmity that the most eminent men in Rome had amassed against him, he was careful not to give offence to the rest of the citizen body; in effect, he was making the goodwill of the masses a counterweight to the hostility the nobles felt for him. [5] When it came to assessing the Knights, he deprived none of them of his horse,* and when it came to drawing up the senatorial roll he expelled none of them as unworthy,* as censors customarily did.
But then the consuls,* who found his measures offensive and wanted to please the nobility, convoked the Senate not as reconstituted by him, but as constituted by the previous censors. [6] So, in order to thwart the nobles and provide support for Appius’ programme, and also because they wanted to confirm the advancement of members of their own class, the people elected to the most prestigious of the aedileships* Gnaeus Flavius, the son of a freedman, who thereby became the first Roman to gain this office whose father had been a slave. After completing his term of office, as a precaution against the enmity of the Senate, Appius pretended to be blind and stayed at home.*
37. In the year of the Archonship of Charinus in Athens, the Romans entrusted the consulship to Publius Decius and Quintus Fabius, and in Elis the 118th Olympic festival was celebrated, with Apollonides of Tegea* the victor in the stade race. In this year:
Ptolemy put to sea from Myndus with a strong fleet. As he sailed through the Aegean islands, he liberated Andros and installed a garrison.* When he reached the isthmus, he was ceded Sicyon and Corinth by Cratesipolis. I have already explained in the previous book* how she came to possess such great cities, so I shall not repeat myself by covering the same ground again. [2] Ptolemy’s plan was to liberate the rest of the Greek cities as well, the idea being that the goodwill of the Greeks would greatly increase his power.* But when the Peloponnesians, who had undertaken to supply him with grain and money, did nothing of the kind, the aggravated dynast made peace with Cassander, by the terms of which each of them would retain the cities he currently possessed. Then, after securing Sicyon and Corinth with garrisons, he sailed back to Egypt.*
[3] Meanwhile, Cleopatra fell out with Antigonus, and since she was inclining towards choosing Ptolemy as her husband, she set out from Sardis in order to make the voyage to Egypt. She was the sister of Alexander, the conqueror of the Persians, and daughter of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and she had been the wife of the Alexander who campaigned in Italy.* [4] Her lineage was so distinguished that Cassander, Lysimachus, Antigonus, Ptolemy, and in short all the most important leaders who emerged after the death of Alexander had sought her hand in marriage. Each of them hoped that a consequence of the marriage would be Macedonian loyalty, and so they wanted an alliance with the royal house as a stepping-stone to supreme power. [5] The governor of Sardis, however, who had been instructed by Antigonus to keep an eye on Cleopatra, prevented her from leaving, and then later, acting on orders from Antigonus, he had her murdered by some women. [6] In an attempt to divert blame for her death from himself, Antigonus punished some of the women for their murderous conspiracy against Cleopatra and made sure that she was buried in fine style, as befitted a member of the royal family. And so Cleopatra, who had been fought over by the greatest men of power, died before the marriage with Ptolemy could go ahead.
[7] Now that I have covered Asia and Greece, I shall move on to other parts of the world. 38. In Libya, the Carthaginians sent out an army to win back the allegiance of the Numidians* who had seceded from their alliance, and Agathocles left his son Archagathus with a division of the army at Tunis, while he set out after the enemy at speed, taking with him the cream of the army, a force of eight thousand foot, eight hundred horse, and fifty Libyan war chariots. [2] When the Carthaginians came to the part of Numidia inhabited by a people called the Zouphones, they won many of the natives over to their side and brought some of the rebels back into alliance, as they had been before.
When they were informed that the enemy was approaching, they made camp on a hill which was surrounded by deep and virtually uncrossable branches of a river. [3] These streams were to act as their forward defences against surprise attacks by their adversaries, and they ordered the most competent of the Numidians to stick closely to the Greeks and to harry them until they halted their advance. The Numidians duly carried out their orders, but Agathocles sent his slingers and archers against them, while advancing against the enemy camp himself with the rest of his army. [4] As soon as they understood his design, the Carthaginians brought their forces out of the camp, formed them up in battle order, and got ready to fight.
When they saw that Agathocles was already starting to cross the river, they attacked in formation and took many enemy lives at the river bed, which was awkward to cross. [5] Agathocles pushed on, however, and while the Greeks were the better fighters, the barbarians had numerical superiority. After a long period of spirited fighting, the Numidians on both sides withdrew from the battle and waited to see what the outcome would be, since they had decided to plunder the baggage of whichever side was defeated. [6] But Agathocles still had his best soldiers, and before long he had forced his immediate opponents to turn, and their flight caused the rest of the barbarians to flee as well. Only the Carthaginians’ Greek cavalry auxiliaries, who were commanded by Clinon, continued to resist the onset of Agathocles’ heavy troops. They put on a brilliant display of martial prowess, but most of them were killed, fighting bravely, and the survivors were lucky to remain alive.
39. Agathocles did not bother to pursue these men and set out instead against the barbarians who had taken refuge in the camp, but he had to force his way over steep and difficult ground, and he found himself taking as many losses as he had earlier inflicted on the Carthaginians. So far from giving up, however, he pressed on; he had been successful up until then and he confidently expected to take the camp by main force. [2] Meanwhile, however, the Numidians had been awaiting the outcome of the battle. Since they could not get to the Carthaginians’ baggage because the fighting between the two armies was taking place near the Carthaginian camp, they set out against the Greek camp, knowing that Agathocles had been drawn a long way off. Since the camp had no defenders who were capable of standing up to them, assaulting it presented no difficulties. They killed the few men who offered resistance and captured a great deal of booty, including a large number of prisoners.
[3] When Agathocles found out, he led his forces back at the double. He recovered some of the stolen property, but most of it remained in Numidian hands, and that night they moved a long way off. [4] After erecting a trophy, Agathocles distributed the spoils to his men, so that there would be no complaints about the lost baggage. As for the Greeks he had captured, who had been fighting for the Carthaginians, he shut them up in a fortress, [5] but they did not want to face whatever punishment the dynast had in store for them, and at night they attacked the garrison. Even though they came off worst in the fighting, they managed to occupy a strong position, and there were at least a thousand of them, of whom more than five hundred were Syracusans. [6] When Agathocles was informed about what had happened, he brought his forces up and induced the Greeks to leave their strongpoint under a truce—and then slaughtered all those who had been involved in the attack on the garrison.
40. After this battle, Agathocles put his mind to considering all kinds of ways in which he might get the better of the Carthaginians. The upshot was that he sent Orthon of Syracuse as an envoy to Ophellas in Cyrene.* Ophellas was one of Alexander’s Friends and a veteran of the eastern expedition, but now he was master of the cities of Cyrenaica, with a powerful army at his disposal, and he saw himself increasing his dominion. [2] So he was already entertaining these kinds of hopes when Agathocles’ envoy arrived and asked for his help in defeating the Carthaginians. In return for this service, Orthon promised that Agathocles would allow Ophellas to be the master of Libya. [3] Sicily was enough for Agathocles, he said, as long as he could free himself from the threat posed by Carthage and rule the whole island without fear. If Agathocles decided to try to increase his sway, Italy was available near by and he could extend his rule there. [4] After all, Libya was separated from Sicily by a large and difficult stretch of sea, which made it very unsuitable for him; even now, he said, Agathocles had not gone there because of any aspirations he entertained, but because he had no choice.
[5] With this new hope added to his long-standing resolution, Ophellas had no hesitation about falling in with the plan, and he sent an envoy to arrange an alliance with the Athenians; his wife was Euthydice, the daughter of Miltiades, the namesake of the man who had commanded the victorious army at Marathon.* [6] Because of this marriage connection, and in general because of the partiality he had often displayed for the city, a good many Athenians committed themselves to joining the expedition.* Many other Greeks also wanted to take part in the enterprise, hoping to gain a share of the best land in Libya and to plunder the wealth of Carthage. [7] Conditions in Greece were poor and depressed, thanks to the relentless warfare and the rivalries of the dynasts, so men were hoping not just to do well for themselves, but also to leave their present troubles behind.
41. So, once Ophellas had completed his preparations for the expedition, which were on an impressive scale, he set out with his army. He had more than ten thousand foot, six hundred horse, a hundred war chariots, and more than three hundred charioteers and chariot-mounted fighters. The army was also accompanied by at least ten thousand non-combatants, as we call them, many of whom were bringing their families and other belongings, so that the army resembled nothing so much as a colonizing expedition. [2] After a march of eighteen days and three thousand stades, they made camp at Automalax.
On the next stage of their journey, there was a mountain which was sheer on both sides, but had a deep ravine running through it, from which a precipitous cliff rose straight up to a peak.* [3] At the foot of this cliff there was a large cave, with its entrance thickly covered by ivy and bindweed, and this is the cave in which, in myth, Queen Lamia is supposed to have been born. She was a woman of extraordinary beauty, but it is said that, because of her savage temperament, she subsequently came to look like a wild beast. What happened was that, after all the children born to her had died,* she became so depressed and so envious of other women’s flourishing families that she gave orders that infants were to be snatched from their mother’s arms and killed on the spot. [4] That is why even nowadays, in our own time, this woman’s tale is still told to children and her name still terrifies them.* [5] When she was drunk, however, everyone could get away with doing what they wanted without being watched over by her, and since on these occasions she was not an intrusive presence in their lives, the people of the land assumed that she could not see them. And that explains why, in some versions of the myth, it is said that she threw her eyes into a basket, which is to transfer to this measure* the heedlessness brought on by drinking, since it was a measure of wine that had robbed her of her sight. [6] One could also adduce evidence from Euripides to prove that she was born in Libya, since he says:*
Is there anyone on earth who does not know the name
Of Libyan-born Lamia, a name to horrify mortal men?
42. Anyway, Ophellas was advancing with his army over terrain that was waterless and teeming with wild creatures. It was hard going, not only because of the shortage of water, but also because he had no more dry food left and was therefore in danger of losing the entire army. [2] Fanged creatures of all kinds make the desert near the Syrtis* their home, most of them with deadly bites, and Ophellas and his men found themselves in considerable difficulty, since no remedy doctors or friends might suggest was effective. Some of the snakes had skin that was similar in colour to the ground on which they lay,* so that they could not be seen for what they were. Many men therefore unwittingly trod on them and received bites that were fatal. Eventually, however, after over two months of misery on the road, Ophellas at last reached Agathocles and had his men make camp, with the two armies a short distance apart.
[3] When the Carthaginians learnt of Ophellas’ arrival and saw how large an army he had brought against them, they were terrified. But Agathocles went to meet Ophellas, cordially supplied him with all his needs, and suggested that he let his men recover from their ordeal. In fact, he stayed for several days, observing all that went on in the camp of the new arrivals. Then, when most of Ophellas’ soldiers were out of the camp foraging for fodder and food, and since he could see that Ophellas had no idea of his intentions, he convened an assembly of his own men and accused his newly arrived ally of conspiring against him. As soon as he had aroused his men’s ardour he led them, fully armed, against the Cyreneans.
[4] Despite the shock of this sudden attack, Ophellas decided to resist. But he had no time to get ready and the forces that remained available to him were inadequate, so he died in the battle. [5] Agathocles forced the rest of his men to lay down their arms, won their allegiance by means of generous promises, and thus took over Ophellas’ entire army. So Ophellas died, a man of high ambition, but too trusting for his own good.
43. In Carthage, Bomilcar was looking for a suitable opportunity to carry his long-held project through to completion and set himself up as tyrant. Circumstances had often created the conditions for him to put his plan into effect, but every time he had let some trivial obstacle get in the way. Anyone who is about to set his hand to an illegal venture of any importance is prone to superstition, so that delay seems preferable to action, procrastination to completion, and that is exactly what happened then in Bomilcar’s case. [2] He sent the most eminent of his fellow citizens out on the campaign against the Numidians so that there would be no man of substance to oppose him, but then he was held back by a fit of caution, lost his nerve, and failed to realize his attempt on the tyranny.
[3] When he did finally launch his attempt to seize power, it happened to coincide with Agathocles’ attack on Ophellas. Neither side was aware of what the other was doing. [4] Agathocles did not know about Bomilcar’s attempt on the tyranny and the chaos in the city, when Carthage might easily have fallen to him. After all, once Bomilcar had been caught red-handed, he would have enlisted Agathocles’ help rather than giving his fellow citizens the opportunity to exact their revenge on his body. Nor, for their part, had the Carthaginians heard about Agathocles’ attack, and they might easily have overcome him by adding Ophellas’ army to their own. [5] It seems to me, however, that in both cases their ignorance was understandable, despite the scale of the events and the fact that the perpetrators of these great ventures were close to each other. [6] Agathocles was about to kill a man who was a friend, so he never turned his mind to what the enemy were up to, and Bomilcar, who was trying to deprive his country of its liberty, was entirely unconcerned about events in the enemy camp, since what he had in mind at the time was getting the better of his fellow citizens, not the enemy.
[7] Now, there is a sense in which one might find the writing of history deficient, seeing that, although in life many different events go on at the same time, those who write them up are compelled to interrupt their narratives and to separate out simultaneous events in a way that does not correspond to reality.* This means that although the truth of historical events can be captured by experience, it cannot be captured by the written record, which falls far short of displaying the true disposition of the events it reproduces.
44. Be that as it may, after carrying out a review of his troops in New Town, as it is called, which lies a short distance outside Carthage,* Bomilcar dismissed the rest, but <retained>† the five hundred citizens and a thousand or so mercenaries who were in on the attempt, and declared himself tyrant. [2] He divided these men into five battalions and went on the offensive, slaughtering everyone he encountered on his way. The tumult in the city was so extreme that at first the Carthaginians supposed that the city had been betrayed and that the enemy was inside the walls. When they learnt the truth, however, the men of military age quickly assembled, formed themselves into companies, and set out against the tyrant.
[3] Bomilcar made his way rapidly through the streets, killing those he encountered, and entered the agora, where he found a large number of unarmed citizens, whom he cut down. [4] But the Carthaginians occupied the buildings around the agora, which were tall, and since the whole area was within their range, the conspirators soon found themselves being wounded by a hail of missiles. [5] Since they were having a hard time of it, they closed ranks and raced together through the streets into New Town, with missiles pelting down on them constantly from whichever buildings they happened to be close to at any given moment. The rebels occupied a hill, and were blockaded there by the Carthaginians, now that the entire citizen body had assembled under arms. [6] In the end, the Carthaginians sent a delegation of qualified elders as envoys, offered an amnesty, and brought hostilities to an end. They kept to the amnesty where the rest of the rebels were concerned, without blaming them for the danger the city had faced, but in Bomilcar’s case they ignored the oaths they had sworn and tortured him horribly to death.
So the Carthaginians recovered their traditional constitution after having faced the gravest danger.* [7] Agathocles, meanwhile, loaded cargo ships with booty, put on board any men who had come from Cyrene but were of no military use to him, and sent them to Syracuse. But storms arose, and only a few of the ships reached Syracuse safely, while some were lost and others were driven on to the Pithecusae islands, off the coast of Italy.*
[8] In Italy, the Roman consuls went to help the Marsi,* who were being attacked by the Samnites; they won the battle and killed the enemy in large numbers. [9] They then marched through Umbria and invaded Etruria, which was enemy territory, and besieged the fortress called Caerium into submission.* When the locals sent envoys to ask for an end to hostilities, the consuls made peace with the people of Tarquinii for forty years, but with all the rest of the Etruscans for only one year.
45. At the beginning of the following year, Anaxicrates became Archon in Athens, and in Rome Appius Claudius and Lucius Volumnius were elected consuls. In this year:
Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, was assigned a powerful army and navy by his father, along with appropriate quantities of artillery and every other kind of siege equipment,* and set sail from Ephesus. His orders were to free all the cities in Greece, starting with Athens, which was garrisoned by Cassander. [2] He landed at Piraeus with his army, launched multiple attacks straight away, and issued a proclamation.* Dionysius, the commander of the Munychia garrison, and Demetrius of Phalerum, Cassander’s governor of Athens, who had a large number of soldiers at their disposal, set about resisting his attacks from the walls.
[3] Some of Antigonus’ soldiers, however, managed to force their way over the wall at the Piraeus headland, and they admitted more of their comrades as well. This led to the fall of Piraeus, and of the defenders Dionysius, the garrison commander, fled to Munychia* and Demetrius of Phalerum retreated to Athens. [4] The next day, he went as one of a delegation of envoys to Demetrius to discuss the restoration of self-determination to Athens and his own personal safety. Once he had obtained a guarantee of safe conduct, he gave up his governorship of Athens and fled to Thebes, and later to Ptolemy in Egypt.* [5] So Demetrius was driven from the city of his birth after having governed it for ten years, while the Athenian people, having recovered their freedom, decreed honours for those who had been responsible for the restoration of their autonomy.
Demetrius brought up his siege engines and artillery pieces, including his stone-throwers, and attacked Munychia by both land and sea. [6] The defenders resisted staunchly from the walls, and it turned out that, while Dionysius’ position on a hill gave him the advantage of height (since in addition to its natural defences, Munychia had been further strengthened by the construction of fortifications), Demetrius greatly outnumbered his opponents and had a clear advantage in terms of equipment. [7] In the end, after the fortress had been assaulted continually for two days, the soldiers of the garrison found themselves coming off worst, since their ranks were being thinned by the catapults and stone-throwers and they had no reserves to draw on, while Demetrius’ men were fighting in relays and were constantly being relieved. Once the wall had been cleared by the stone-throwers, Demetrius’ men broke into Munychia, forced the defenders to lay down their arms, and made a prisoner of Dionysius, the garrison commander.
46. These victories took only a few days, and then, once he had demolished the Munychia fortress, Demetrius gave the Athenian people back their freedom and entered into a treaty of friendship and alliance with them. [2] The Athenians voted in favour of a decree proposed by Stratocles to the effect that they should erect, near the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton,* gilded statues of Antigonus and Demetrius standing on a chariot; award the two of them crowns worth two hundred talents; found an altar to them and dedicate it to the Saviour Gods;* add two tribes, Demetrias and Antigonis, to the existing ten;* hold games, a parade, and a sacrifice in their honour every year; and embroider their likenesses into Athena’s robe.* [3] So fifteen years after the Athenian people had been deprived of power by Antipater as a result of the Lamian War,* they suddenly recovered their ancestral constitution.
Megara had a garrison, but Demetrius besieged it into submission, gave the people back their independence, and was awarded signal honours by them, for the good he had done them. [4] As for Antigonus, when an embassy came to him from Athens, bringing a copy of the decree that pertained to the honours he had been awarded, the ambassadors raised the matters of grain and wood for ship-building, and he gave them 150,000 medimnoi of grain and enough timber for a hundred ships. He also withdrew his garrison from Imbros and gave the city back to Athens.* [5] Then he wrote to his son, Demetrius, telling him to form a council of delegates from the allied cities to meet and make policy for the Greeks,* while Demetrius himself sailed with his army to Cyprus and made war on Ptolemy’s generals there as soon as possible. [6] Demetrius lost no time in carrying out his father’s orders.* He went to Caria and called on the Rhodians to help him in the war against Ptolemy, but they refused, preferring to be on peaceful terms with everyone,* and this refusal was the beginning of the acrimony between the Rhodians and Antigonus.
47. After sailing along the coast to Cilicia, where he gained further ships and soldiers, Demetrius crossed over to Cyprus. He had an army of fifteen thousand foot and four hundred horse, and a navy of more than 110 fast triremes, fifty-three heavier warships used as troop-carriers, and sufficient freighters of various classes to transport the large numbers of cavalrymen and infantrymen. [2] At first, he made camp on the coast near Carpasia, where he beached his ships and strengthened his camp with a palisade and a deep trench. Then he attacked the nearby cities. Urania and Carpasia fell to his assaults, and then, after leaving an adequate guard for his ships, he set out with his army against Salamis.
[3] Menelaus, the man appointed by Ptolemy to govern the island, had withdrawn men from the hill-forts and was waiting in Salamis with the army he had mustered of twelve thousand foot and about eight hundred horse. When the enemy was about forty stades away, he emerged from the city, and battle was joined. It did not take long for Menelaus’ men to be overwhelmed and routed, and Demetrius harried them back into the city, taking almost three thousand prisoners and killing about a thousand. [4] At first, after pardoning the prisoners, he distributed them among the units of his own army, but they kept running away to Menelaus because their baggage had been left in Egypt with Ptolemy,* and Demetrius, recognizing that they were intractable, shipped them off to Antigonus in Syria.
[5] At this time, Antigonus was in Upper Syria, seeing to the foundation of a city on the Orontes which was called Antigonea after him. He was sparing no expense on the project—the city was designed to have a perimeter of seventy stades—because the location was excellent for watching over not only Babylon and the upper satrapies, but also coastal Syria and the satrapies that bordered Egypt. [6] Antigonea did not last long, however, since Seleucus demolished it and moved it to his new foundation, the city that was named Seleucia after him.* But I shall explain all this in detail when we come to the relevant period of time.*
[7] Returning for now to Cyprus, after his defeat Menelaus lined the walls with artillery and counter-siege devices, posted his soldiers on the battlements, and prepared to fight. Since Demetrius was also clearly getting ready for a siege, [8] Menelaus sent messengers to Ptolemy in Egypt to tell him about the defeat and to ask for reinforcements, given that his control of the island was in jeopardy.
48. Seeing that Salamis was no mean city and that there were a great many soldiers inside to defend it, Demetrius decided to build especially large siege towers, catapults of all sizes (both bolt-shooters and stone-throwers), and every other kind of armament that would bring the enemy to their knees. He sent to Asia for craftsmen, iron, a large amount of timber, and suitable building materials for all his equipment. [2] Before long everything was ready, and he constructed a siege tower that was called a ‘city-taker’.* Each of its sides was forty-five cubits long, its height was ninety cubits (divided into nine floors), and the whole thing was mounted on solid wheels, each with a diameter of eight cubits. [3] He also had enormous battering rams made and two sheds to convey them. On the lowest floors of the city-taker he had various stone-throwing devices installed, the largest of which were capable of hurling stones that weighed three talents. On the middle floors, he installed his heaviest bolt-shooters, and on the upper floors the lightest catapults and a large number of lighter† stone-throwers. More than two hundred men were stationed in the tower, competent operators of these devices.
[4] Demetrius brought his siege engines up to the city and let loose volley after volley of missiles. He used the stone-throwers to clear the battlements and shook the walls with his rams. [5] But the defenders resisted well and deployed their own contraptions against his. For some days the outcome of the battle was uncertain, since both sides were having a hard time of it and being hit by enemy fire. Eventually, however, the wall collapsed and the city was on the point of being taken—but just then night fell and the fighting at the wall came to an end.
[6] There was no doubt in Menelaus’ mind that the city would fall unless he came up with a fresh initiative. He collected a large amount of dry wood, and in the middle of the night he had his catapults hurl this at the enemy’s siege towers, while at the same time all his men shot fire-bearing arrows from the walls.† They succeeded in setting several of the larger siege engines alight, [7] and as the flames suddenly blazed up Demetrius tried to remedy the situation, but it was too late; the towers were burnt to the ground and many of the men who were stationed inside them lost their lives. [8] Despite this setback, however, Demetrius did not give up, but persevered with the siege by land and sea, confident of eventual victory.
49. When Ptolemy received news of the defeat his men had suffered, he sailed from Egypt with a large army and navy. He put in at Paphos on Cyprus, and once further ships had reached him there from the cities he sailed along the coast to Citium, which was two hundred stades distant from Salamis. [2] He had a total of 140 warships, ranging in size from quinqueremes down to quadriremes. These warships were accompanied by more than two hundred troop-carriers, containing at least ten thousand infantrymen.
[3] Ptolemy sent messengers overland to Menelaus, telling him, if he could, to send him the sixty ships he had at Salamis as soon as possible. He did this because he was confident that, with the addition of these ships, he would easily win any battle at sea, since he would be fighting with two hundred ships. [4] But when Demetrius found out what Ptolemy’s intentions were, he left a division of his army to see to the siege and manned his entire fleet. He embarked the best of his soldiers, equipped the ships with stone-throwers, and placed on the prows of the ships a good number of heavy bolt-shooters.* [5] Once he had equipped his fleet for battle with a lavish hand, he sailed around Salamis and dropped anchor at the mouth of the harbour, just out of missile range. He spent the night there, preventing Menelaus’ ships from joining up with the rest, and at the same time watching out for the arrival of the enemy and maintaining a state of readiness for battle.
[6] The approach of Ptolemy’s fleet to Salamis, with the transports following the warships at a distance, was an awesome sight, given the great number of ships involved. 50. When Demetrius learnt that Ptolemy was on his way, he left his admiral, Antisthenes, with ten ships to prevent Menelaus’ ships from leaving and contributing to the battle—only ten ships because the harbour mouth was narrow—and he ordered his cavalry to patrol the shore, so that, if any ship was lost, they could save anyone who swam to land. [2] Then he drew up his ships in battle formation and went to meet the enemy. He had a total of 108 ships,* which included those that had been manned by crews from the places he had captured.* The largest of his ships were septiremes, but most of them were quinqueremes. [3] On his left wing there were seven Phoenician septiremes and thirty Athenian quadriremes, under the command of his admiral Medius. Behind them—because he had decided to strengthen this wing, where he was intending to fight himself—he stationed ten hexaremes and the same number again of quinqueremes. [4] In the middle of the line he posted the lightest of his ships, under the command of Themison of Samos and Marsyas, the author of a history of Macedon.* The right wing was commanded by Hegesippus of Halicarnassus and Pleistias of Cos, who was the helmsman-in-chief of the whole fleet.
[5] Ptolemy at first sailed at speed for Salamis while it was still night, thinking that he could enter the harbour before the enemy was in a position to stop him. But when day broke and the enemy fleet could be seen near by, drawn up for battle, Ptolemy too got ready to fight. [6] He ordered the transport ships to keep their distance, and then he drew up the rest of his fleet in the appropriate battle order. He himself took charge of the left wing, along with the largest of his ships. After he had made his arrangements, both sides prayed to the gods in the customary fashion, with the boatswains* leading and the rest of the crew joining in after them.
51. With their lives at stake and the decisive battle imminent, the two dynasts were extremely anxious. When Demetrius was about three stades away from the enemy, he raised the pre-arranged signal for battle, which was a gilded shield, making it visible to all his men in succession. [2] Once Ptolemy had done likewise as well, the gap between the two fleets rapidly closed. When the trumpets sounded the signal for battle and both sides raised their battle-cries, the ships all bore down on one another in formidable array. At first, they relied on bows, stone-throwers, and volleys of javelins to wound their enemies as they came within range, but then, when the ships were close to one another and the shock of ramming was fast approaching, the men on the decks crouched down* and, at the urging of their boatswains, the oarsmen fervently increased their efforts.
[3] The force and violence with which the ships collided was such that in some cases they sheared off their opponents’ oars, making them incapable of either flight or pursuit, and thwarting the zeal of the marines who were eager to play their part in the fray. In other cases, when ships collided prow to prow with their rams, the marines stationed on the decks set about wounding one another, since their targets were close at hand, as the ships backed water in preparation for another ramming run. In yet other cases, the captains took their opponents in the side and, with the rams stuck fast, men tried to leap aboard the enemy ships, and met or meted out death in terrible forms. [4] Some men, as they grabbed hold of the nearby gunwale of an enemy ship, missed their footing and fell into the sea, where they were immediately stabbed to death by the spears of those who stood over them, while others, who managed to board the enemy ship successfully, either killed their opponents or forced them back along the narrow walkway and toppled them into the sea.
In short, the fighting was varied and full of surprises. Often the weaker side came off best because they had the taller ship, and the stronger side worst because their situation placed them at a disadvantage or because of the unpredictability of this kind of battle. [5] In battles fought on land, there is no mistaking valour because it awards the ability to win, when there are no external, random factors to frustrate it. In sea-battles, however, there are many factors of various kinds that unexpectedly defeat men whose courage should have brought them victory.
52. The most glorious display of martial prowess was put on by Demetrius as he stood at the stern of his septireme. He was attacked by many men at once, who crowded around him, but he either struck them down with his lances or, if they came to close quarters, killed them with his spear. A large number of missiles of all kinds were fired at him, but he dodged those he saw coming and let his defensive armour stop the rest. [2] Of the three men whose job it was to protect him with their shields, one was killed by a lance and the other two fell wounded.
In the end, Demetrius overpowered the ships ranged opposite him, and at the same time as turning Ptolemy’s right wing he also forced the next ships in the line to take off as well. [3] But Ptolemy, who had the largest ships and the best men with him, had no difficulty in turning his opponents, and a number of ships were either sunk or captured along with their crews. When he turned back from this victory, he did not expect the rest of Demetrius’ fleet to present him with much of a problem, but then he saw that his left wing* had been defeated and that all the next ships in the line had turned to flight, and also that Demetrius was bearing down on him with overwhelming numbers—and at that point he sailed back to Citium. [4] After his victory, Demetrius made Neon and Bourichus responsible for the troop-carriers and told them to go after the men who were swimming in the sea and pick them up. He then adorned his ships with the stemposts of the enemy ships,* took the ships he had captured in tow, and sailed to his camp and the harbour he was using as his base.
[5] While the battle was in progress, Menelaus, the general in Salamis, manned his sixty ships and sent them off, under the command of Menoetius, to help Ptolemy. An engagement took place at the mouth of the harbour with the ships which were guarding the exit and the Salaminian ships forced their way through the blockade. Demetrius’ ten ships fled to the army camp, and Menoetius sailed off, but he arrived a little too late and returned to Salamis.
[6] So this was the outcome of the battle. More than a hundred of Ptolemy’s transport ships were captured, and they were carrying over eight thousand soldiers.* As for the warships, forty were captured along with their crews and about eighty were disabled and were towed by the victors, full of sea water, to their camp by the city. Twenty of Demetrius’ ships were also disabled, but after receiving the proper care they all continued to perform the services for which they were fitted.
53. After the battle, Ptolemy gave up on Cyprus and sailed back to Egypt.* Demetrius took over all the cities on the island along with the soldiers of the garrisons, whom he enrolled in units of his own army. Sixteen thousand infantrymen were enrolled in this way, and about six hundred horse. He lost no time in sending men off on the largest of his ships to his father, to tell him about his success. [2] When Antigonus heard about the victory, he was so exhilarated by the extent to which he outstripped everyone else that he put on a diadem and from then on began to style himself king.* He also let Demetrius have the same title and rank.* [3] Ptolemy’s spirits were not crushed by his defeat, however, and he too similarly assumed the diadem and began to refer to himself as ‘king’ in all his letters.* [4] The other dynasts, not to be outdone, did the same and also began to call themselves kings—Seleucus, who had recently extended his territory by acquiring the upper satrapies, and Lysimachus and Cassander, who still held the territory they had originally been allotted.*
But I have said enough about these matters, and now I shall move on to what was happening in Libya and Sicily. 54. When Agathocles found out that the dynasts I have just mentioned had assumed the diadem, he awarded himself the title of king. His thinking was that his armed forces were just as strong as theirs, his territory just as extensive, and his achievements just as significant. He decided not to wear a diadem, however, because it was already his constant habit to wear a wreath. He had been wearing a wreath, as a consequence of a priesthood that he held, at the start of his bid for tyranny, and he never took it off throughout the time of his struggle for power. There are, however, some who say that his habit of wearing a wreath came about because he did not have a very good head of hair.
[2] Be that as it may, wanting to do something worthy of the title of king, he marched against the people of Utica, who had defected from his alliance. He launched a surprise attack on the city and captured about three hundred citizens who had been cut off in the countryside. At first, he offered the Uticans a free pardon and demanded that they surrender the city to him. When they turned him down, however, he built a siege tower, hung the prisoners on it, and brought it up to the city walls. [3] The Uticans felt sorry for their wretched comrades, but the freedom of all meant more to them than the lives of those few, so they posted their troops on the walls and bravely awaited the siege.
[4] Agathocles had equipped the tower with catapults, slingers, and bowmen, and in the early stages of the siege he used it to spearhead his assault—and to sear, so to speak, the minds of the defenders. [5] The men stationed on the walls were reluctant at first to fire missiles, since the targets before them were fellow citizens and included some of the leading men of the city. But when the enemy piled on the pressure, the Uticans had no choice but to defend themselves against the attacks of the troops stationed in the tower. [6] What they experienced then was cruel and unusual indeed, and they knew what it was to be treated badly by Fortune, since they were caught in a trap they could not avoid. Given that the Greeks were using the captured Uticans as human shields, the defenders could either spare these men’s lives and let their city fall to the enemy, or they could defend the city by ruthlessly killing a large number of their fellow citizens who had simply been unlucky. [7] And that is exactly what happened. In order to defend themselves against the enemy they relied on missiles of all kinds, and while they shot down the soldiers who were manning the tower, their javelins also struck some of their fellow citizens who were hanging there, and their bolts nailed whichever parts of their bodies they hit to the tower, until they resembled criminals who were being defiled and punished by being crucified. And the chances are that this was being done to them by friends and relatives, since Necessity does not trouble itself with what men call sacred.
55. When Agathocles saw that they had hardened their hearts and were intent on fighting, he posted his men all around the city and managed to force his way inside at a point where the wall had been badly built. [2] The Uticans fled into their houses and sanctuaries, and Agathocles, who was furious with them, set about an orgy of slaughter. Some were killed in combat, anyone who was captured was hanged, and he made sure that those who had sought safety in the sanctuaries and at the altars of the gods were cheated of their hopes. [3] Once he had looted the city of its movable property, he left a guard to look after it and took his army off to the town called Hippou Acra, which was well protected by nature by the marshy lake that lay beside it.* He assaulted the place vigorously and it fell to him once he had defeated the local inhabitants in a battle at sea.
The subjection of these two cities brought him control not only of most of the places on the coast, but also of the peoples who lived inland. The Numidians were the only exception; some of them entered into a pact of friendship with him, but others preferred to wait and see what the final outcome of the war would be. [4] Libya was divided up among four peoples. There were the Phoenicians and the Libyphoenicians; the Phoenicians occupied Carthage in those days, and the Libyphoenicians possessed a large number of coastal towns, intermarried with the Carthaginians, and got their name from their compound ethnicity. Then the most populous of the native peoples, and the oldest, were the Libyans, who loathed the Carthaginians with exceptional bitterness because of the oppressive form of domination under which they suffered. And finally there were the Numidians, who occupied a great deal of Libya, all the way up to the desert.
[5] Agathocles now had the advantage over the Carthaginians thanks to his Libyan allies and the size of his forces, but he was still very worried about Sicily. He therefore built both undecked galleys and penteconters, and embarked two thousand of his soldiers. Leaving his son Agatharchus in command in Libya, he put to sea and sailed to Sicily.
56. Meanwhile, Xenodocus, the Acragantine general, who had already freed many of the Sicilian cities and stirred the Siceliots to hope for the restoration of self-determination throughout the island, led his army of more than ten thousand foot and almost a thousand horse against Agathocles’ generals. [2] Leptines and Demophilus raised as many men as they could from Syracuse and the hill-forts, and took up a position close to Xenodocus with an army of 8,200 foot and 1,200 horse. A fierce battle took place, in which Xenodocus came off worst. He fled to Acragas and lost at least 1,500 of his soldiers. [3] In view of this disaster, the Acragantines brought their great project* to an end, and with it their allies’ hopes of freedom.
Soon after this battle had taken place Agathocles arrived back in Sicily. He sailed into Selinous and forced the people of Heraclea, who had freed their city, to submit to him again. Then he crossed over to the other side of the island, where he won the allegiance of the people of Therma and let the Carthaginians who were garrisoning the city go under a truce.† Then, after besieging Cephaloedium into submission and leaving Leptines there as its governor, he marched through the interior and tried to get into Centuripae under cover of darkness, where some of the citizens were due to admit him. But the plan was discovered, the garrison soldiers came to the rescue, and he was driven out of the town with the loss of more than five hundred men. [4] Next, he went to Apollonia at the invitation of some of the citizens who were promising to betray the city to him, but the traitors had already been found out and punished, so he put the place under siege. On the first day, his assaults were ineffective, but the next day he did succeed in taking the city, although it cost him a great deal of effort and many men. He put most of the people of Apollonia to death and looted their property.
57. While Agathocles was going about all this, Deinocrates, the leader of the exiles, took over the Acragantine policy; he declared himself the champion of liberty for all, and as a result many men flocked to his banner from all over the island. [2] They eagerly placed themselves at his disposal, some moved by the desire for self-determination that is innate in all men, others by fear of Agathocles. Once Deinocrates had collected an army of over twenty thousand foot and 1,500 horse, all of them men who had been schooled by constant exile and hardship, he camped out in the open countryside, challenging the dynast to battle. [3] And when Agathocles, who was greatly outnumbered, refused the challenge, Deinocrates dogged his heels relentlessly, winning victory by default.
From this moment onwards, there was a downturn in Agathocles’ fortunes, in Libya as well as in Sicily. [4] After his father’s departure, Archagathus, whom Agathocles had left in command in Libya, got the better of the enemy at first. He sent a division of the army under the command of Eumachus into the interior, and Eumachus captured the sizeable city of Tocae and won the allegiance of many of the Numidians who lived thereabouts. [5] Then he besieged another town, called Phelline, until it surrendered, and compelled the local tribe of pastoralists, who were called the Asphodelodeis and were almost as black as Ethiopians,* to submit to him. [6] The third place he took was Meschelas, a very large and very ancient city, founded by Greeks returning from the Trojan War, as mentioned in my third book.* Then he captured a town called Hippou Acra, which had the same name as one of the towns taken by Agathocles,* and finally he took an independent city called Acris, where he enslaved the population and gave his troops permission to plunder.
58. Once his men were glutted with booty, Eumachus returned to Archagathus. Now that he had a reputation for effectiveness, he campaigned once again in the interior of Libya. He bypassed the cities that had fallen to him on the previous occasion and broke into a city called Miltine, which he took by surprise. [2] But the barbarians united against him and got the better of him in the streets, so that he was unexpectedly driven out of the city, with the loss of many men. After leaving Miltine, he advanced across a high mountain range that was almost two hundred stades in extent. It was filled with cats,* and therefore absolutely no winged creatures made their nests there either in the trees or in fissures in the rocks, because of the aggressiveness of these cats. [3] On the other side of these mountains, he entered a land which teemed with apes and contained three towns called the Ape-towns after these creatures—that is, when the word is translated into Greek.
[4] Many of the customs of these towns were quite different from ours. The apes lived in the same houses as people, for instance; they were regarded as gods, as dogs are in Egypt, and were allowed to take food whenever they liked from the provisions kept in the storerooms. Parents very commonly gave their children ape-related names, just as we name our children after the gods.* [5] Killing one of these creatures was treated as the worst kind of sacrilege and was punishable by death. This is the origin of the proverbial saying that was current among some of them and was applied to people who are legally killed: ‘That’s the price of ape’s blood.’
[6] Anyway, Eumachus assaulted and took one of these towns and gained the other two by negotiation. But when he found out that the barbarians who lived in the vicinity of these towns were mustering in large numbers against him, he continued on his way with some rapidity, having decided to return to the coast.
59. So far, the Libyan campaign as a whole had gone according to Archagathus’ plan, but the next thing that happened was that the Council of Elders in Carthage had a useful meeting about the war at which it was decided to form three armies and send them out of the city, one against the coastal towns, the second into the hinterland, and the third into the interior. [2] The counsellors’ thinking was that, in the first place, this would make it easier for the city to endure the siege and would also alleviate the food shortage, seeing that hordes of people from all over the country had taken refuge in Carthage, with the result that they were short of everything, since supplies had already been exhausted. They were in no immediate danger from the siege, however, because the city was unapproachable thanks to its defences—its walls and the sea. [3] In the second place, they thought that their allies would be more likely to persevere if there were a number of armies in the field to come to their aid. But what counted most for them was their hope that the enemy would be forced to divide his forces and withdraw a good distance away from Carthage.
All of these objectives were realized, just as they had planned. [4] Once thirty thousand troops had been sent out of the city, those who remained behind† not only had enough to satisfy their needs, but even had a surplus that enabled them to enjoy plenty of everything, and their allies, who had previously been forced to come to terms with the enemy out of fear, regained their courage and reverted to the friendly relations they had formerly had with Carthage.
60. When Archagathus saw that all Libya was in enemy hands, he too divided his army. He sent one division to the coast, gave a part of the rest of the army to Aeschrion and sent him on his way, and took command of the other part himself, leaving an adequate garrison in Tunis. [2] With so many armies at large all over the country and with a decisive change expected, everyone was in suspense, waiting to see what the outcome would be.
[3] Hanno, who was in command of the army in the hinterland, laid an ambush for Aeschrion, took him by surprise, and killed more than four thousand infantrymen and about two hundred cavalrymen, including the general himself. Some of the rest were captured, but others made it safely to Archagathus, who was about five hundred stades away.
[4] Himilco, whose job was to campaign in the interior, at first made one of the cities there his base while waiting for Eumachus,† whose army was crawling along, weighed down by all the spoils they had taken from the cities they had captured. [5] Then, when the Greeks drew up their army and challenged him to battle, Himilco left some of his men in the city, armed and ready, with orders to emerge and attack his pursuers when he feigned retreat, while he set out with half of his troops, joined battle a short way in front of the Greek camp, and immediately turned to flight as though overcome by terror. [6] Eumachus’ men, exulting in their victory, gave chase with no thought for their formation, and in considerable disorder set about harrying the retreating enemy. But then suddenly the troops poured out from another part of the city as arranged, and when this considerable body of men cried out all at once in response to a single command, Eumachus’ men were stricken by panic. [7] Since the men the barbarians attacked were therefore out of order and frightened by the unexpected turn of events, it did not take long for the Greeks to be routed. The Carthaginians had cut off the enemy’s line of retreat back to their camp, so Eumachus and his men were forced to flee to the nearby hill, which was short of water. [8] When the Phoenicians besieged the place, the Greeks, who were both weakened by thirst and were no match for the enemy, were almost all killed. In fact, of eight thousand infantrymen there were only thirty survivors, and of eight hundred cavalrymen only forty escaped from the battle.
61. After meeting with such an overwhelming catastrophe, Archagathus returned to Tunis. He rounded up the remnants of his expeditionary forces wherever they were to be found, and sent messengers to Sicily to tell his father what had happened and to convey his urgent request for help. [2] Then the Greeks suffered another setback on top of the defeats they had already experienced: all but a few of their allies defected from them, and the united enemy forces encamped near by and were awaiting their opportunity. [3] Himilco occupied the defiles and denied his opponents, who were about a hundred stades away, access to the passes from the countryside, while on the other side Atarbas made camp forty stades from Tunis. [4] Since the enemy therefore controlled both sea and land, the Greeks began to suffer from shortage of provisions and faced danger from every quarter.
[5] The general feeling among the Greeks was that their position was hopeless, but when Agathocles heard about the setbacks in Libya, he made seventeen warships ready, with the intention of going to help Archagathus. Although his affairs in Sicily had taken a turn for the worse because of the increase in the number of the exiles who had joined Deinocrates, he entrusted the war on the island to the generalship of Leptines, while he manned the ships and waited for an opportunity to set sail, given that the Carthaginians had thirty ships blockading the harbour.
[6] Just then eighteen ships arrived from Etruria as reinforcements. They sailed into the harbour under cover of darkness without being spotted by the Carthaginians, and the acquisition of this extra capability enabled Agathocles to defeat the enemy by means of a stratagem.* He ordered the auxiliaries to remain in the harbour until he had sailed out and drawn the Carthaginians into pursuing him, and then he put his plan into effect by setting out from the harbour at speed with his fleet of seventeen ships. [7] The Carthaginian picket ships gave chase, and when Agathocles saw that the Etruscans were emerging from the harbour, he suddenly turned his ships, took up a position for ramming, and engaged the barbarians. This was not what they had been expecting, and with their triremes caught between enemy squadrons the terrified Carthaginians turned tail. [8] Then the Greeks captured five ships with their crews, and the Carthaginian general, seeing that his command ship was on the point of being captured, committed suicide, preferring death to the captivity he foresaw. But in fact this turned out to have been a poor decision, because his ship caught a favourable wind, and when the emergency sail was hoisted it escaped from the battle.
62. So Agathocles, who had never expected to get the better of the Carthaginians at sea, unexpectedly defeated them, and from then on remained dominant at sea and was able to protect his merchant shipping. Supplies now began to reach the Syracusans from everywhere, and they soon replaced their shortages with plenty of everything. [2] Agathocles was delighted by his success and sent Leptines to plunder enemy farmland. His orders were to focus on Acragas, because Xenodocus was being maligned by his political opponents and there was factional strife between him and them. [3] Agathocles ordered Leptines, then, to try to tempt Xenodocus to give battle—a battle he would easily win, because Xenodocus’ forces would be riven by factionalism and had already known defeat.
[4] And that is precisely what happened. Leptines invaded Acragantine territory and set about laying it waste, and at first Xenodocus did nothing, judging his forces no match for the enemy, but then, when he was rebuked by his fellow citizens for cowardice, he led his army out against the enemy. In terms of numbers, he fell only a little short of his opponents, but he was very inferior in terms of battlefield skills because his army consisted of citizens who had been born to a sedentary life of ease, whereas the enemy army had been trained by service in the field and by constant campaigning. [5] So, when battle was joined, Leptines soon routed the Acragantines and harried them back to the city, and the defeated side lost about five hundred foot and over fifty horse in the course of the battle. Then the people of Acragas, who were angered by their defeats, brought charges against Xenodocus, on the grounds that the two defeats had been his fault. Xenodocus, however, fearing the impending scrutiny and trial, withdrew to Gela.
63. Within just a few days Agathocles had defeated his enemies on land and sea, and he sacrificed to the gods and entertained his friends magnificently. In symposia, he used to shed the lofty demeanour of a tyrant and make himself out to be lower than any of the ordinary citizens of Syracuse. This was a measure he used as a way of seeking the favour of the common people, and since he also allowed men to speak out against him while they were drunk, he learnt exactly what each of them was thinking, since the truth is brought to light in an unvarnished form by wine. [2] He was also naturally given to buffoonery and mimicry, and in fact even in assemblies he used to permit himself to mock the company and imitate some of them, with the result that the masses often broke out in laughter as though they were watching an actor or a showman. [3] Since the masses acted as his bodyguard, he used to enter assemblies unattended—unlike the tyrant Dionysius, who trusted everyone so little that he usually had long hair and a bushy beard, in order to avoid having to bring the most vital parts of his body near a barber’s blade, and if he ever needed to have short hair, he used to singe it off, declaring that the only safe course for a tyrant was mistrust.
[4] Anyway, in the course of the symposium Agathocles took the great drinking-cup made of gold, and said that he had not given up working as a potter until in his practice of the craft he had made this fine a cup.* He did not conceal the fact that he had practised the profession, but on the contrary used to boast of it, in the sense that he used to say that it was through his own abilities that he had exchanged the humblest of lives for the highest rank in society. [5] Once, when he was besieging a rather illustrious city and people from the wall were shouting ‘Potter! Kiln-operator!* When will you pay your troops?’, he replied: ‘When I’ve taken this city.’
[6] Be that as it may, once people’s unguarded talk at symposia had enabled him to identify which of his fellow drinkers were hostile to his tyranny, he gave them a personal invitation later to another banquet, along with any other Syracusans who were particularly self-assertive. The total number came to five hundred men, and he surrounded them with those of his mercenaries who were fit for the work and slaughtered them all. [7] He wanted to be good and sure that, while he was absent in Libya, they did not put an end to his tyranny and recall Deinocrates and the exiles. So once he had secured his rule in this way he put to sea and left Syracuse.
64. When he reached Libya, he found the army disheartened and very short of provisions. Under the circumstances, he decided that his best course of action was to fight. He aroused his men’s martial ardour and advanced in battle order, challenging the barbarians to combat. [2] His army consisted of all the surviving Greeks, six thousand in number, at least the same number of Celts, Samnites, and Etruscans, and not far short of ten thousand Libyans—though in the event they waited on the sidelines, ready as usual to change sides if the situation changed. [3] In addition to these infantrymen, the army included 1,500 cavalrymen and more than six thousand Libyan war chariots.
The Carthaginians, however, whose camp occupied high and inaccessible ground, chose not to fight men who had nothing to lose. Their hope was that, if they stayed in their camp and remained well supplied with everything, hunger and the passage of time would enable them to defeat their opponents. [4] But the situation left Agathocles no choice except a bold and risky venture, and since it was impossible to draw the barbarians down on to the plain, he led his army against their encampment. The Carthaginians therefore sallied forth, and even though they greatly outnumbered him and had the advantage of the difficult terrain, Agathocles held out for a while, though he was hard pressed on every side. But then his mercenaries and the rest of his men began to give ground, and he was forced to retreat to his camp. [5] The barbarians pursued them closely. They ignored the Libyans and gave them no trouble in order to win their allegiance, but they could tell the Greeks and mercenaries by their weaponry, and they continued to slaughter them until they had driven them into their camp. About three thousand of Agathocles’ men lost their lives on this occasion.
On the night following the battle, it so happened that both armies were visited with disaster of an unusual and totally unexpected kind. 65. After their victory, the Carthaginians were sacrificing at night the best of the prisoners they had taken, as offerings in gratitude to the gods. A great fire was consuming the men who were being burnt as sacrificial victims when suddenly the wind got up and caused the sacred tent, which was near the altar, to catch alight—and then the fire spread to the general’s tent and the officers’ tents that were next to it, to the considerable dismay and terror of the entire army. Some men were caught by the flames as they were trying to put out the fire, or as they were fetching their panoplies and the most valuable pieces of equipment from their tents. The tents were made of reeds and grass, and the fire was fanned into a furious blaze by the wind, so that it spread more quickly than the soldiers could bring help. [2] The upshot was that before long the entire camp was in flames. Many men were burnt alive, trapped in the narrow corridors of the camp, and paid an instant penalty for their cruel treatment of the prisoners, in a punishment that fitted their crime. As for those who made their way out of the camp amid all the confusion and din, an even greater danger awaited them.
66. This is what happened. About five thousand of the Libyans who had been in Agathocles’ army had deserted from the Greeks and were making their way over to the barbarians under cover of darkness. When the outlying pickets saw these men approaching the Carthaginian camp, they thought that the whole Greek army was advancing, armed and ready, and before long they had warned the soldiers about the approaching threat. [2] By the time the message had reached everyone, there was considerable tumult and an attack by the enemy was expected any moment. To a man, they placed their hopes of safety in flight, but since no order had been given by the generals and no one was in formation, the fugitives kept running into one another. Because of the darkness and their terror, they failed to recognize their comrades and fought them on the assumption that they were enemies. [3] There was great loss of life. Given their prevailing disorientation, either men died fighting, or, if they had burst out of the camp unarmed, they fled over rugged terrain, terrified out of their wits by the sudden danger, and fell over cliffs.
In the end, more than five thousand men died, but the rest of the army made it safely to Carthage. [4] Those in the city, however, wrongly believed the report they received from their men, and thought that they had been defeated in a battle and that most of their troops had lost their lives. They were therefore extremely anxious as they opened the city gates and let the soldiers in, amid confusion and agitation, because they were afraid that they were letting the enemy into the city along with the tail-enders. It was only when it was light that they learnt the truth and were at last relieved from their expectation of disaster.
67. But at the same time Agathocles met with a similar disaster, also caused by mistaken beliefs and expectations. After the burning of the Carthaginian camp and the ensuing maelstrom, the Libyans who had deserted did not dare to carry on. They turned back again, and some Greeks who saw them approaching thought it was the Carthaginian army that was coming and told Agathocles that the enemy army was near by. [2] The dynast gave the call to arms and his troops rushed out of the camp in considerable confusion. At the same time, the fire in the Carthaginian camp blazed up high and the din from there became audible, and the Greeks became absolutely certain that the barbarians were advancing towards them in full force. [3] Terror made it impossible for them to think rationally about what to do, panic seized hold of the army, and they all turned to flight. Then, when they met up with the Libyans, and given that the darkness was working to increase their disorientation, they began to fight those they encountered on the assumption that they were enemies. [4] All night long they scattered all over the countryside in a state of panicked confusion, and in the end more than four thousand were killed. When the truth at last became known, the survivors returned to their camp. So catastrophe struck both armies, because they were deceived, as the saying goes, by the needless alarms of war.
68. After this disaster, all the Libyans defected from his alliance, and since his remaining forces lacked the strength to tackle the Carthaginians, Agathocles decided to leave Libya. However, he did not think it would be possible for him to take his troops back because he had not built any transport ships and because the Carthaginians would never allow it as long as they had control of the sea. [2] Nor did he think that the barbarians would agree to a truce, because they greatly outnumbered him and were determined to discourage future attacks on Libya by annihilating its first invaders. [3] He therefore decided to put to sea in secret with just a few companions, one of whom was to be his younger son Heracleides. He was wary of Archagathus, who he thought might at some point form a conspiracy against him, given his affair with his stepmother* and his impetuous nature.
But Archagathus suspected his father of some such plan and was watching for signs of an impending voyage; his intention was to inform a number of the leading men and get them to stop Agathocles leaving. Archagathus was furious at the prospect of being abandoned and left at the mercy of the enemy. Why should he be the only one to be denied safety, when he had played an active role in the battles, fighting for his father’s and brother’s interests? [4] He therefore told some of the senior officers that Agathocles was planning to sail away secretly by night, and they met and not only stopped Agathocles, but also told the ordinary soldiers about his deception. This made the soldiers furious, and they arrested the dynast, bound him, and put him under guard.
69. Without leadership, there was confusion and turmoil in the camp, and that night the rumour arose that the enemy were approaching. The men were seized by alarm and terror, and to a man they armed themselves and made their way out of the camp, although no order to that effect had been given. [2] At the same time, the men who were guarding the dynast, who were just as terrified as the rest, thought that some people were calling for them and made haste to bring Agathocles out of his cell, bound in fetters. [3] When the rank-and-file soldiers saw him, they were moved by pity and with one voice they called out for him to be released. As soon as he had been freed, he embarked on the packet boat with a few companions and stealthily sailed away, even though it was the time of the setting of the Pleiades.*
Thinking only of his own safety, then, Agathocles abandoned his sons, who were murdered by the soldiers* as soon as they learnt of Agathocles’ escape. The troops then chose generals from among their own ranks and made peace with the Carthaginians. By the terms of the agreement, the Greeks were to surrender the cities they held on receipt of three hundred talents, and those who elected to serve with the Carthaginians would be paid at the going rate, while the rest, once they had sailed over to Sicily, were to be given Solous to live in.* [4] In general, the soldiers abided by the terms of the agreement and received what was due to them, but those who were occupying the cities clung to their hope of being relieved by Agathocles and their cities were taken by storm. [5] The leaders were crucified by the Carthaginians, while the rest were bound in fetters and forced to bring back into cultivation by their own labour the land they had made barren during the war.
So the Carthaginians recovered their freedom in the fourth year of the war. 70. But, where Agathocles’ expedition to Libya is concerned, it is worth remarking on its unusual features and the way in which his sons were punished as if by divine providence. Although he had been defeated in Sicily, with the loss of most of his army, in Libya he got the better of those who had previously defeated him with just a fraction of his forces. [2] He lost all the Sicilian cities and was put under siege in Syracuse, but in Libya he gained all the other cities, pinned the Carthaginians inside their city, and put it under siege. It was as though Fortune were making a deliberate display of her power in hopeless cases. [3] After he had reached the peak of his power and had killed Ophellas, who was a familiar and a guest-friend of his,* the gods clearly indicated that what happened to him later was repayment for his lawless treatment of this man.† For it was on the very same day of the very same month in which he killed Ophellas and took over his forces that he in his turn brought about his sons’ deaths and lost his army. [4] And the most interesting thing of all is that, like a good lawgiver, the god imposed double the penalty on him. After wrongfully killing one friend, he lost two sons when the young men fell into the hands of those who had served with Ophellas. Anyway, this is all I want to say in response to those who scorn such matters.
71. Agathocles crossed swiftly from Libya to Sicily, rounded up some of his army, and went to Egesta, an allied city with a population at the time of about ten thousand. Since he was short of money, he set about forcing the wealthy to contribute the bulk of their property. [2] There was widespread anger at this and people began to band together, so Agathocles accused the Egestans of conspiring against him and made the city suffer terribly. He brought the poorest members of society out of the city and slaughtered them by the river Scamander, while those who were allegedly better off were tortured until they revealed how rich they actually were. Some were broken on the wheel;* some were tied on to catapult frames and had arrows fired at them; some were flogged brutally with knotted whips which caused excruciating pain.
[3] He also invented another form of punishment, which was similar to Phalaris’ bull;* he constructed a bed of bronze in the shape of a human body, with bars regularly spaced all around it, slotted his victims into it, and lit a fire under it while they were still alive. Compared with the bull, this contraption was superior in that those who were being killed by this form of torture were visible. [4] He maimed the wives of the rich either by crushing their ankles with iron pincers or by cutting off their breasts, and if any of them were pregnant he piled bricks on the small of her back until the weight squeezed out the foetus.
Fear stalked the streets of the city while the tyrant was employing this method of ferreting out wealth. Some people burnt themselves to death along with their houses, while others let the noose end their lives. [5] It took just one calamitous day for Egesta to suffer the loss of all its adult citizens. The girls and boys Agathocles sent over to Italy, where he sold them to the Bruttii. He did not even leave the city its name, but changed it to Dicaeopolis and gave it to the soldiers who had deserted to him, for them to live in.*
72. When Agathocles heard about the killing of his sons, all the men who had been left behind in Libya became objects of his hatred, and he sent some of his friends to his brother Antander in Syracuse, telling him to slaughter all the relatives of those who had taken part in the Carthaginian expedition. [2] Antander lost no time in carrying out his orders, and there followed the widest-ranging massacre the world had ever seen. Not only did he consign to death those who were in the prime of life—brothers, fathers, or sons—but even grandfathers and possibly even great-grandfathers, if they were still alive, men of extreme old age who had already been entirely deprived of their senses by the passage of time, and infants, too young to walk or have any sense of their impending doom. Women too were seized, if they were related by blood or marriage, as, in short, was anyone whose suffering would hurt those who had been left behind in Libya.
[3] A large and motley crowd was taken to the coast for execution. When their killers took up their posts, the mingled sound arose of tears and prayers and lamentation, not just from those who were being callously murdered, but also from those who were stunned by the misfortunes of their neighbours and who, in anticipation of what was about to happen, were just as affected as those who were actually being killed. [4] The hardest thing of all was that, following all the killing, when the bodies of the dead were littering the shoreline, no relative or friend dared to bury them, because they were afraid that it might be interpreted as a confession that they were related to them. [5] So many people were killed beside the sea that a wide expanse of water was stained red with blood and left people far off in no doubt about the terrible savagery of what had happened.
73. At the beginning of the following year, Coroebus became Archon in Athens, and in Rome Quintus Marcius and Publius Cornelius obtained the consulate. In this year:
Phoenix,* the younger son of King Antigonus, died and, after giving him a royal funeral, Antigonus sent for Demetrius from Cyprus and collected his forces at Antigonea. He had decided to march against Egypt. [2] He took command of the land army himself and advanced through Coele Syria with more than eighty thousand foot, about eight thousand horse, and eighty-three elephants. He entrusted the fleet to Demetrius and told him to coast along beside the army as it made its way south. In all, 150 warships had been made ready, along with a hundred transport vessels, which were carrying a great quantity of ordnance.
[3] The helmsmen thought Antigonus should bear in mind† the setting of the Pleiades,* which was expected in eight days’ time, but he reproached them with cowardice. He was in camp at Gaza, and since he was keen to forestall Ptolemy’s preparations, he ordered his men to provide themselves with ten days’ worth of supplies, and he loaded the camels (which had been collected for him by the Arabs) with 130,000 medimnoi of grain and a large quantity of fodder for the animals. With carts conveying his artillery, he proceeded through the desert; it was hard going because there was a great deal of marshland, especially near the so-called Pits.*
74. Demetrius put to sea from Gaza in the middle of the night. At first, since the weather was fine, for several days he had his faster ships tow the transport vessels, but then, given that it was the time of year for the Pleiades to set, a northerly wind arose. Many of his quadriremes were perilously driven by the storm back to Raphia, where there are shoals and the anchorage is poor. [2] As for the ships carrying the artillery, some were sunk by the storm and lost, while others ran back to Gaza. But Demetrius persevered and made it through to Casius with the best of his ships.
[3] This place is situated quite close to the Nile, but it lacks a harbour and in wintry conditions it is impossible to land there. This meant that they had to drop anchor and ride the swell at a distance of about two stades from land, which was extremely hazardous. The waves were choppy and rougher than usual, so that there was a danger of the ships sinking with all hands. Since the land was unsuitable for beaching and was enemy territory, ships could not safely sail up to it nor could men swim there. The worst thing of all was that they had run out of drinking water, and their need was so desperate that if the storm had continued for just one more day they would all have died of thirst. [4] The situation seemed hopeless and death was expected at any moment, when the wind dropped and Antigonus’ army arrived and made camp near the fleet. [5] Demetrius and his men therefore disembarked and recovered in the camp while waiting for the ships that had been scattered. The storm claimed three quinqueremes, but some of the men managed to swim to land. Then Antigonus led his forces close to the Nile and made camp two stades away from the river.
75. Ptolemy, who had already occupied and secured the most critical places with guards, dispatched some men in wherries. Their job was to sail up close to where the enemy were disembarking and announce that Ptolemy was prepared to pay men to desert from Antigonus, at a rate of two mnas for every ordinary soldier and a talent for every officer. [2] The proclamation of this offer aroused in Antigonus’ mercenaries the desire to change sides, and even quite a few of the mercenary officers inclined† for one reason or another to find desertion an attractive option. [3] But as his men were starting to desert to Ptolemy in large numbers, Antigonus posted archers, slingers, and a great many bolt-shooters on the river bank and repulsed the men who were trying to draw near in the wherries. Some of the deserters fell into his hands and he tortured them horribly, as a way of intimidating others who were entertaining the same idea.
[4] Once he had been joined by the ships that had been delayed, he sailed to a place called Pseudostomon,* hoping that it would be possible for some of his troops to disembark there. But he found a strong guard there, who kept him at bay with bolt-shooters and various other kinds of artillery, so he sailed away as night was falling. [5] Next, he told the helmsmen to follow the command ship by keeping his lantern in sight, and he sailed to Phatniticum, as this mouth of the Nile is called. But at daybreak he found that many of his ships had strayed off course, and he was forced to wait for them and to send the fastest of the ships that had kept up with him to look for them.
76. All this took quite a bit of time, so when Ptolemy found out where the enemy had landed he raced there with an army to confront them and, when everything was ready, took up a position along the shoreline. But since he failed to disembark his men at this point as well, and since he had been told that the adjacent coastline had natural defences in the form of marshes and lagoons, Demetrius set out back with his whole fleet the way he had come. [2] But then a fierce northerly wind struck and the waves began to run high, and three of his quadriremes and some† of his transport vessels as well were driven violently ashore by the waves and fell into Ptolemy’s hands. The rest of his ships, however, were kept from grounding by the efforts of the crews and reached Antigonus’ camp safely.
[3] Since Ptolemy had occupied every landing-point on the river and they were well guarded, and since he had a large number of river boats, all laden with various kinds of artillery pieces and with men to operate them, Antigonus found himself in all kinds of trouble. [4] His fleet was useless because the Pelusiac mouth of the river was in enemy hands,* and his land army was prevented from advancing and achieving anything because it was checked by the width of the river, but the most important factor was that, since the expedition had already been going on for many days, he was beginning to run out of food for the men and fodder for the animals. [5] All these factors meant that morale in the army was low. Antigonus therefore called a meeting† of the officers and men with the agenda of deciding whether it was better to stay and fight, or to return for the present to Syria and then later, when they were better prepared, to launch another expedition at a time when they could expect the Nile to be at its lowest. [6] Everyone inclined to the view that they should leave at the earliest possible opportunity, and so he told his men to break camp and he quickly returned to Syria, with the whole fleet also coasting along beside him.
Ptolemy was extremely pleased at the departure of the enemy.* He expressed his gratitude to the gods with sacrifices and feasted his friends in lavish style. [7] He also wrote to Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander to inform them of his success and to boast about how many men had deserted over to his side. He had successfully defended Egypt for a second time and he now regarded the country as spear-won territory.* And so he returned to Alexandria.
77. Meanwhile, Dionysius, the tyrant of Heraclea Pontica, died after a reign of thirty-two years, and his sons, Oxathras and Clearchus, inherited the reins of power and ruled for seventeen years.
In Sicily, Agathocles went the rounds of the cities that were subject to him, securing them with garrisons and exacting money from them. He did this because he was extremely concerned about the possibility that the Siceliots might take advantage of the setbacks he had suffered to make a bid for independence. [2] In fact, this was when one of his generals, Pasiphilus, in response to the news of the killing of Agathocles’ sons and of his losses in Libya, judged the dynast to be no threat and went over to Deinocrates’ side. Pasiphilus entered into a pact of friendship with Deinocrates, tightened his hold on the cities which had been entrusted to him, and undermined his men’s loyalty towards Agathocles by tempting them with hopes for the future. [3] With his hopes being whittled away on all sides, Agathocles was so depressed that he made contact with Deinocrates and suggested that they make a treaty on the following terms: that Agathocles should resign his tyranny and restore Syracuse to its citizens, that Deinocrates’ exile should be brought to an end, and that Agathocles should be given two designated fortresses, Therma and Cephaloedium,* along with their farmland.
78. One might reasonably wonder in all this why Agathocles, who had resolutely endured every other situation and had never lost confidence in himself even when things were at their most desperate, should at this point have turned coward and ceded to his enemies, without a fight, the tyranny for which he had previously fought so many major battles. The most perplexing thing of all was that, although he was master of Syracuse and other cities, and although he had ships, money, and a fair-sized army, his power of reasoning was blunted and he failed to bear in mind the history of the tyrant Dionysius.
[2] Dionysius was once caught up in a situation that was evidently hopeless. The extent of the danger he was facing made him despair of retaining his tyranny, and he was on the point of leaving Syracuse by horse and going into voluntary exile, when Heloris, the eldest of his Friends, checked him and said: ‘Dionysius, tyranny makes a fine shroud.’* [3] Similarly, Dionysius’ brother-in-law, Megacles, told him that in his opinion a man who was being expelled from a tyranny should be dragged away by the leg, rather than leave of his own accord. With his spirits raised by these expressions of encouragement, Dionysius endured whatever he was faced with, however frightening it appeared, and not only increased his empire, but, after he had grown old enjoying its benefits, he bequeathed to his sons the greatest realm in Europe.
79. In Agathocles’ case, however, since his gloom was not relieved by any such considerations, and because he failed to test his fallible expectations against past experience, he entered into an agreement that required him to give up his great empire. In actual fact, however, the agreement was never put into effect; it was validated by the choices Agathocles made, but Deinocrates’ ambition prevented his acceptance of it. [2] Deinocrates wanted sole rule, and he was therefore not in sympathy with the democracy in Syracuse, and was perfectly happy with the supremacy he had at the time. He had at his command more than twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse, and many great cities as well, so that although he was called the general of the exiles, in actual fact he was as dominant as a king, since his power was absolute. [3] But if he returned to Syracuse, he would inevitably be an ordinary citizen, just one among many, since a self-governing city is naturally egalitarian, and in the elections he would be worsted by anyone, however undistinguished, who appealed to the people, since the masses are opposed to the supremacy of men who speak their minds.*
It follows that, while it would be perfectly fair to accuse Agathocles of having deserted his post as tyrant, it would also be fair to hold Deinocrates responsible for the dynast’s subsequent successes. [4] For Agathocles sent embassy after embassy to Deinocrates to discuss the terms of their agreement and to ask him to allow him the two fortresses to live in, but Deinocrates always came up with specious pretexts by means of which he thwarted Agathocles’ hopes of an agreement. On one occasion, for instance, he insisted that Agathocles should leave Sicily, while on another he demanded his children as hostages.
[5] When Agathocles realized what Deinocrates was up to, he wrote to the exiles, accusing him of preventing them from gaining their independence, and he sent envoys to the Carthaginians and made peace with them. By the terms of the treaty the Phoenicians would regain all the cities which had formerly been subject to them, and in compensation Agathocles would receive from the Carthaginians gold to the value of three hundred talents of silver (or, as Timaeus says, 150 talents),* and 200,000 medimnoi of grain. That was how things stood in Sicily.
80. In Italy, the Samnites took the towns of Sora and Calatia,* which were Roman allies, and sold the populations into slavery, and the consuls invaded Iapygia in strength and encamped near the town of Silvium.* [2] Since this town had a Samnite garrison, they began a siege which lasted quite a few days. Eventually, the town fell to them and they gained more than five thousand prisoners and a good quantity of other kinds of booty. [3] When they had finished with this, they invaded Samnite territory, where they ravaged fruit-bearing trees and wrought destruction wherever they went. The Romans had been fighting the Samnites for many years over the issue of supremacy in Italy, and they hoped that depriving them of their rural properties would force the enemy to submit to their superior strength. [4] They therefore spent five months on the devastation of enemy territory; they put almost all the farm buildings to the torch and made the land barren by destroying everything that was capable of producing a cultivated crop. Then they declared war on the people of Anagnia in response to their infractions, besieged Frusino into submission, and sold their farmland.*
81. At the beginning of the following year, Euxenippus became Archon in Athens, and Lucius Postumius and Tiberius Minucius were the consuls in Rome. In this year:
War broke out between the Rhodians and Antigonus, under the following circumstances. [2] The city of Rhodes had a powerful navy and there was no better governed city in Greece; these factors made it an object of rivalry among the dynasts and kings, each of whom wanted to win it over to his friendship. Being far-sighted about where its interests lay, it made separate pacts of friendship with each of them and played no part in the wars they fought against one another. [3] It therefore came to be honoured with kingly gifts by each of the dynasts, and since it remained for many years untroubled by war, it progressed by leaps and bounds. Its power became so great, in fact, that it made itself responsible, on behalf of the Greeks, for the war against the pirates and cleared the sea of those criminals. The most powerful man in history, Alexander, valued Rhodes above all other cities; it was there that he deposited his will regarding the overall disposition of his kingdom,* and there were other ways in which he expressed his admiration for it and helped it to grow in power. [4] So, by entering into pacts of friendship with all the dynasts, the Rhodians carefully avoided giving anyone grounds for complaint, but it was Egypt above all that they inclined to favour with their loyalty, because most of their revenues were due to trade with Egypt and in general the city was maintained by that kingdom.
82. Antigonus was aware of all this and wanted to detach the Rhodians from their association with Ptolemy. His first move—this was when he was at war with Ptolemy over Cyprus—was to send envoys to convey his request for an alliance and to ask them to provide ships to join Demetrius’ fleet.* [2] When they refused, he sent one of his generals with a fleet, whose job was to detain any ships sailing from Rhodes to Egypt and to confiscate their cargoes. When this general was repulsed by the Rhodians, Antigonus treated this as an act of war, unjustly initiated by them, and threatened to attack the city in strength and put it under siege.* In response, the Rhodians initially decreed major honours for him and sent envoys to ask him not to force the city to get involved in a war with Ptolemy which would infringe their treaty with him. [3] The king gave them a harsh reply, however, and dispatched his son Demetrius with an army and siege engines. The Rhodians, intimidated by the king’s overwhelming power, at first got in touch with Demetrius and promised to support Antigonus in his war against Ptolemy. But when Demetrius demanded a hundred of their most eminent citizens as hostages and ordered them to admit his fleet into their harbours, they concluded that he had designs on the city and they got ready for war.
[4] Demetrius made the harbour of Loryma* the mustering point for all his forces and prepared his fleet for the attack on Rhodes. He had two hundred warships of various classes and more than 170 transports for conveying his infantry, who numbered not far short of forty thousand, along with the cavalry and the pirates who were his allies. He also had a great deal of ordnance of various kinds, and he had equipped himself massively with everything he might need for a siege. [5] In addition, the army was accompanied by almost a thousand freighters, privately owned by those whose profession was trade. Rhodian farmland had remained unplundered for many years, and large numbers of men had gathered from all quarters—the kind of men who regard the misfortunes of the victims of war as a way to enrich themselves.
83. Demetrius drew up his fleet in a formidable array, as though for a set-piece sea-battle, and advanced his warships, which were equipped on their prows with heavy bolt-shooters. The troop-carriers and horse-transports followed, towed by oar-propelled ships, and then the rear was taken by the pirates’ freighters and those of the traders and merchants, who constituted a vast horde, as I have already said. The whole stretch of sea between the island and the opposite shoreline seemed to be covered with ships, and the people watching from the city were struck with fear and terror. [2] The Rhodian soldiers who had been stationed on the walls and were awaiting the approach of the enemy fleet, and the old men and the women who were watching from their houses (which was made possible by the fact that the city is shaped like a theatre)*—all of them were terrified by the size of the fleet and the gleam of weaponry in the sunlight, and were in an agony of uncertainty about the final outcome.
[3] Then Demetrius reached the island. He disembarked his forces and encamped close to the city,* beyond the range of missiles. The very next thing he did was send out suitable men, both pirates and others, to ravage the island by land and sea. [4] He also cut down the trees in the nearby countryside and demolished the farm buildings, using the materials to strengthen his camp. In fact, he surrounded it with a triple palisade and with long stakes closely packed together, so that the enemy’s losses were his men’s gain, in terms of safety. Then he put all his men to work, including the crews of the ships, and in a few days he had built a mole between the city and his landing-point, so that he had a harbour large enough for his ships.
84. At first, the Rhodians sent envoys, asking Demetrius to refrain from doing any irremediable harm to the city. Their pleas fell on deaf ears, however, so they gave up trying to find a peaceful solution and sent envoys to Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Cassander, asking for help on the grounds that the city was fighting the war as their proxy. [2] They offered the foreigners who were living in the city, whether they were residents or temporary visitors,* the chance to fight alongside them if they wanted, and sent those who refused out of the city as useless. This served two purposes: first, they were looking ahead to the possibility that the city might become short of food, and, second, they were guarding against treachery from anyone who was unsatisfied with the situation. When they counted those who were capable of fighting, they found that they had about six thousand citizens and about a thousand foreigners, both residents and visitors. [3] They also voted to purchase from their masters any male slaves who were effective in battle, and to emancipate them and give them citizenship. And they drafted another decree to the effect that the bodies of those who died in the war were to be buried at public expense, and that their parents and children were to be maintained by grants from the public treasury, that their daughters were to be given their dowries at public expense, and that when their sons came of age they were to be honoured in the theatre at the Dionysia with a panoply.*
[4] These measures made everyone determined to endure the coming danger bravely, and the Rhodians also did all they could to prepare in other respects. The entire population was in accord, so the rich paid money into the public treasury, the craftsmen put their expertise towards the making of weapons, and everyone went about their tasks energetically, eager to prove themselves more public-spirited than their neighbours. [5] People were busy with the bolt-shooters and stone-throwers, or with the construction of other artillery pieces, or with repairing damaged sections of wall, and a great many men were carrying stones to the walls and piling them up. They even sent three of their fastest ships out against the enemy and the freighters that were bringing their supplies. [6] They took the enemy by surprise, sank a number of ships belonging to traders whose purpose in sailing was to plunder the land for profit, and even managed to haul quite a few ships on to the shore and burn them. Any prisoners they captured who were able to provide a ransom were taken back to the city, because the Rhodians had an agreement with Demetrius whereby they would give each other a thousand drachmas to ransom a free man, and five hundred for a slave.*
85. Demetrius had a plentiful supply of everything he might need for the installation of his siege engines, and he began to build two sheds, one each for the stone-throwers and the bolt-shooters. Each of these sheds was mounted on two freighters that had been joined together.† He also set about building two towers which, at four storeys high, were taller than the towers of the harbour wall; each of the towers was mounted on two identical ships† and fastened in place in such a way that, as they were being advanced, each structure bore down equally on both of its sides and remained in balance. [2] He also built a floating palisade that was nailed on to squared logs, which was to act as a forward defence and prevent the enemy from sailing up and ramming the ships that bore the siege engines. [3] While these were being finished, he collected the sturdiest of the lemboi,* provided each of them with a protective wall of planks with closable windows, and mounted on them those of his heavy bolt-shooters that had the longest range. He put on board competent operators of these catapults and Cretan archers, and he had the boats approach to within missile range and shoot down those who were increasing the height of the harbour walls.
[4] When the Rhodians saw that Demetrius was concentrating his attack entirely on the harbour, they too set to work, to make it safe. They placed two sheds on the mole and three more on freighters near the boom of the small harbour; in these sheds they put a large number of bolt-shooters and stone-throwers of all sizes, so that, if the enemy disembarked soldiers on the mole or brought his siege engines up closer, this artillery would thwart their designs. They also placed on the freighters that were anchored in the harbour platforms suitable for the catapults that were to be mounted on them.
86. Once both sides had completed the preparations I have been describing, Demetrius first attempted to bring his siege engines to bear against the harbours,* but was prevented from doing so by rough sea. Later, however, when he met with favourable weather at night, he quietly sailed up and seized the end of the mole of the Great Harbour. He immediately fortified this beachhead with a barricade of planks and stones, and put four hundred soldiers ashore there and a number of artillery pieces of various kinds, since the area he had seized was only five plethra away from the walls. [2] Then, at daybreak he brought his siege engines into the harbour, accompanied by the blare of trumpets and the cries of his men, and he used his lighter bolt-shooters, which had a long range, to drive off the men who were working on the harbour wall, and his stone-throwers to damage or destroy not only the enemy’s sheds, but also the wall across the mole, which was insubstantial and low at this time. [3] The Rhodians put up a strong resistance, however, and the whole of that day passed with both sides inflicting and suffering heavy losses.
After dark Demetrius had tugs pull his siege engines back out of range, but the Rhodians filled some skiffs with dry wood and flammable pine, and put braziers on board. At first, they set out in pursuit of the enemy’s engines, and when they were close they set light to the wood, but then they were foiled by the floating palisade and Demetrius’ artillery, and were forced to withdraw. [4] As the fire took hold, a few of them managed to put the flames out and return with their boats, but most of them swam ashore as their skiffs were consumed. The next day, Demetrius repeated the same attacking manoeuvres by sea, and he also ordered his men to assault the city by land from all directions, shouting out their battle-cries and sounding their trumpets as they did so. The idea of all this was to make the Rhodians uneasy and frightened, since their attention was being pulled in many different directions at once.
87. After assaulting the city in this way for eight days, Demetrius had obliterated the siege engines which had been placed on the mole with his heavy stone-throwers and damaged not just the curtain wall between the towers, but the towers themselves. Some of his soldiers also occupied a section of the cross-wall by the harbour, but the Rhodians formed themselves up and joined battle. They had the advantage of numbers, and they killed some of Demetrius’ men and repulsed the rest. The Rhodians were helped by the roughness of the shoreline beside the wall, because there was a continuous jumble of large boulders outside the wall and right next to it, [2] and quite a few of the ships which were carrying these soldiers were wrecked because they did not know about this hazard.† After quickly detaching the stemposts from the wrecks,* the Rhodians threw dry wood and flammable pine into them, and burnt them up.
While the Rhodians were occupied with this, Demetrius’ troops sailed all around the city, brought scaling ladders up to the walls, and launched a robust assault, and their comrades on land joined in by attacking from every direction and chimed in with their battle-cry as well. [3] Men were now recklessly risking their lives and many had reached the top of the walls, so the fighting was fierce, with those on the outside trying to force their way in and the Rhodians running up in large numbers to defend their city. In the end, as a result of some fervent fighting by the Rhodians, those who had mounted the walls were either thrown down or wounded and captured. The prisoners included some of the most senior officers. [4] After the besiegers suffered such a resounding defeat, Demetrius had his siege engines retire back to his own harbour and repaired any vessels and contraptions that had been damaged, while the Rhodians buried their dead fellow citizens, dedicated the enemy’s weapons and stemposts to the gods, and rebuilt the stretches of wall that had been brought down by the stone-throwers.
88. Demetrius spent seven days repairing his siege engines and his ships, and once he had everything ready for the siege he again sent the ships to attack the harbour. Its capture was the sole purpose of his efforts, because it would deny the people in the city access to their grain supply. [2] When his ships were within range, he attacked the Rhodian ships that were riding at anchor in the harbour with his fire-throwing artillery, while with his stone-throwers he shook the walls and with his bolt-shooters he shot down any men who showed themselves. [3] The attack was relentless and terrifying, but the Rhodian shipowners, desperately concerned for their vessels, managed to extinguish the fire-bearing missiles, while the Prytanes,* seeing that the harbour was in danger of being taken, called on the highest-ranking members of Rhodian society to endure the danger of battle before all was lost.*
[4] The response to their appeal was ample and enthusiastic, and the Rhodians manned their three strongest ships with picked men. Their orders were to try to ram and sink the ships that were carrying the enemy’s siege engines, and they drove forward through a hail of missiles. [5] They did well at first: they broke through the iron-plated palisade,* and then, by repeatedly ramming the ships, they filled two of them with sea-water and overturned the towers, but when the third contraption* was towed back by Demetrius’ men, the Rhodians, encouraged by their success, pressed on into battle with inappropriate boldness. [6] The consequence was that they became surrounded by many large ships and their hulls were shattered in many places by rams. The admiral, Execestus, was wounded and captured, as were the captain of his ship and a few others, although everyone else jumped overboard and swam over to their comrades. One of the ships fell into Demetrius’ hands, but the other two escaped.
[7] After the battle, Demetrius built another tower three times as large as its predecessor in height and breadth, but as he was bringing it up to the harbour a southerly gale sprang up which swamped the ships that were lying at anchor and overturned the tower. Just then the Rhodians, cleverly taking advantage of the favourable opportunity, opened a gate and attacked the men who had established the beachhead on the mole. [8] A prolonged and fierce battle took place, and since Demetrius was unable to send reinforcements because of the storm, while the Rhodians were fighting in relays, the king’s men, numbering almost four hundred, had no choice but to lay down their arms and surrender. [9] After this victory of theirs, the Rhodians were joined by some allies: 150 men arrived from Cnossus and more than five hundred from Ptolemy. Some of the men supplied by Ptolemy were Rhodians who were in service to the king as mercenaries. That was how things stood in Rhodes.
89. In Sicily, Agathocles had failed to make peace with Deinocrates and the exiles, so he marched out against them with the forces he had at his disposal. His thinking was that the only option left to him was to risk fighting a decisive battle. He had with him no more than five thousand foot and about eight hundred horse. [2] When Deinocrates and the exiles saw this bold move by the enemy, they jubilantly came out to do battle with Agathocles, since, with more than twenty-five thousand foot and at least three thousand horse, they greatly outnumbered him. The two armies halted close to each other at a place called Torgium and then formed up for battle. The fighting was fierce for a short while, given the determination displayed by both sides, but then some of the exiles who were at variance with Deinocrates—there were more than two thousand of them—went over to the tyrant and thereby became responsible for the exiles’ defeat. [3] Morale was greatly boosted on Agathocles’ side, while Deinocrates’ soldiers panicked and turned to flight, because they overestimated the number of the deserters.
Agathocles pursued them for a while, without allowing a massacre to take place, and then he sent envoys to the exiles, asking them to end their hostility and return to their native cities. After all, he said, they now knew by personal experience that they would never be able to get the better of him on the battlefield, since they were beaten even on this occasion, when they greatly outnumbered him. [4] On the exiles’ side, all the cavalrymen survived the flight and made it safely to a village called Ambicae, and some of the infantry escaped after nightfall, but most of them halted on a hill and came to terms with Agathocles. They no longer had any hope of winning a battle and every man longed for his family and friends, his homeland and its amenities. [5] Agathocles gave pledges to guarantee their safety and they left the relative security of their hill. When they had come down, Agathocles disarmed them, surrounded them with his army, and massacred them to a man. Timaeus says that there were six thousand of them, others that there were about four thousand. [6] Agathocles always held pledges and oaths in contempt, and his strength came not from his own resources but from keeping his subjects weak, since he was more afraid of his allies than his enemies.
90. Having wiped out the enemy army in this way, Agathocles took in the surviving exiles and became reconciled with Deinocrates; in fact, he gave him the command of a division of his army and constantly trusted him with crucial business. One might wonder at this point why it was only with Deinocrates that Agathocles, who was otherwise suspicious of everyone, remained on good terms all his life. [2] But, now that he had betrayed his allies, Deinocrates seized Pasiphilus in Gela, killed him, and turned the fortresses and towns over to Agathocles. It took him two years to hand the enemy’s possessions over† to the tyrant.
[3] In Italy, the Romans defeated the Paeligni,* took their land for themselves, and granted citizenship to those few who were held to be Roman sympathizers. Then, since the Samnites were ravaging the Falernian Fields,* the consuls marched against them, and a battle took place which the Romans won. [4] They captured twenty standards and more than two thousand of the enemy soldiers. The consuls then immediately took the town of Bola, but Gaius Gellius,* the Samnite commander, appeared with an army of six thousand. A close-fought battle took place, and Gellius himself was made prisoner, while most of the Samnites were cut down, although some were taken alive. The consuls took advantage of their thorough victory and recovered Sora, Arpinum, and Serennia,* the allied towns which had fallen to the enemy.
91. At the beginning of the following year, Pherecles became Archon in Athens, in Rome Publius Sempronius and Publius Sulpicius were the next to be appointed to the consulate, and in Elis the 119th Olympic festival was celebrated, with Andromenes of Corinth the victor in the stade race. In this year:
Demetrius was besieging Rhodes, and since he was having no luck with sea-borne assaults, he decided to attack from the land. [2] He got hold of a great quantity of various materials and built a siege tower called a ‘city-taker’,* which was far larger than any of its predecessors. Each side of its square base platform, which was made out of squared timbers joined by iron plates, was almost fifty cubits long. The space between the platform and the ground had rows of beams set about a cubit apart from one another, as stations for the men who were to push the tower forward. [3] Despite its weight, the whole thing was movable, since it was mounted on eight large, solid wheels, the rims of which were two cubits wide and plated with strong iron. In order to allow it to move sideways, swivels were devised, by means of which the whole contraption could easily move in any direction.
[4] From the corners there arose pillars, equal in length and just short of a hundred cubits long, which inclined towards one another in such a way that the first floor of the whole structure, which was nine storeys high, had an area of forty-three hundred square feet and the topmost storey nine hundred square feet. [5] He covered the outside of the three exposed sides of the contraption with iron plates, to protect it from fire-throwing artillery. Each floor had windows on the front, the sizes and shapes of which suited the kinds of missile that were going to be fired from them. [6] These windows had shutters, which were raised by a device and were designed to provide the men on each floor with protection as they went about the business of firing their missiles, because they were made out of hides which had been stitched together and filled with wool so that they would reduce the impact of the boulders fired by the stone-throwers.*
[7] Each of the floors had two wide stairways, one of which they used for climbing up with whatever they needed, while the other was used for descending, so that everything could be managed without confusion. The machine was to be moved by 3,400 men who had been selected from the entire army for their exceptional strength. [8] Some of them were shut up inside and pushed it forward from there, while the rest were stationed behind; the mobility of the contraption was greatly helped by its skilful design.
Demetrius also built sheds, some to protect the work of filling in the moat, others to carry rams, and galleries through which men could safely reach their place of work and return from it. He got the crews of the ships to clear an area four stades wide (which is to say that the work zone covered the length of six curtain walls and seven towers), over which he intended to bring the siege engines up to the city, once they were built. The number of craftsmen and labourers that he assembled was not far short of thirty thousand.
92. Thanks to his large workforce, everything was completed sooner than expected. Demetrius now posed a real threat to the Rhodians. It was not only the size of his siege engines and the large number of troops he had assembled that terrified them, but also the forcefulness and ingenuity that he brought to sieges. [2] He had an extremely good technical mind and it was because he invented many devices that went beyond the skill of the professional engineers that he was called Poliorcetes, ‘the besieger of cities’. And when it came to assaulting a city, he had such technical superiority, and brought so much forceful energy to bear, that it seemed that no wall was strong enough to afford the besieged protection from him.
[3] Besides, he was so tall and handsome that he seemed to have the stature of a hero. The sight of his good looks, enhanced by the air of superiority natural to a king, astounded even visiting foreigners, and they joined his train, as he went about, just to keep him in view. [4] Moreover, he was temperamentally aloof and haughty, and treated not only the common people with contempt, but even potentates. But his most distinctive feature was that although at times of peace he spent his time drinking and frequented symposia with their dancing and carousing—although, in short, he imitated the behaviour the mythologers attribute to Dionysus when he was on earth—yet in his wars he was so energetic and sober that both physically and mentally he was more ready for battle than any other practitioner of warcraft. [5] It was, after all, in his time that the greatest artillery pieces were perfected, and engines of all kinds that far surpassed those that had existed earlier; and after this siege and his father’s death he launched some truly enormous ships.*
93. When the Rhodians saw how well the enemy’s engineering projects were progressing, they built a second wall inside the city, parallel to the one that was likely to be damaged in the course of the assaults. The stones they used were gained by demolishing the outer wall of the theatre and the nearby houses, and even some of the temples, while promising the gods that they would build them more beautiful ones once the city had been saved.
[2] They also sent out nine ships and ordered the commanders to sail far and wide; they were to launch surprise attacks, and to either sink the ships they captured or bring them back to the city. Once these ships had taken to the sea, they separated into three squadrons. Damophilus, who was in command of ships that the Rhodians call ‘guards’, sailed to Carpathos and found many of Demetrius’ ships there. Some he sank by holing them with his rams, some he beached and burnt (while picking out the most useful members of their crews), and he brought back to Rhodes from the island quite a few ships which had cargoes of grain.
[3] Menedemus, who was in charge of three triēmioliae,* sailed to Patara in Lycia, where he found a ship whose crew had gone ashore and left it riding at anchor. He put this ship to the torch, and captured many others that were bringing supplies to Demetrius’ army and sent them off to Rhodes. [4] He also captured a quadrireme that was sailing from Cilicia, which had on board kingly robes and the rest of the effects that Phila, Demetrius’ wife, had devotedly got ready and sent off to her husband. Menedemus sent the clothing off to Egypt, since the robes were dyed with purple and were apparel fit for a king, but he hauled the quadrireme on to land and sold both its crew and the crews from the other ships he had captured.
[5] The remaining three ships were under the command of Amyntas. He sailed to the islands,* where he found many ships that were bringing the enemy materials for their siege engines. He sank some of them and brought others back to Rhodes, and among the prisoners on these ships were engineers who were famous for their artillery and eleven artillerymen of exceptional skill.†
[6] The next thing that happened was that the Rhodian assembly met and some men spoke in favour of tearing down the statues of Antigonus and Demetrius, arguing that it was dreadful to allow their besiegers the same honours as their benefactors. But the people did not approve of the suggestion; they censured the speakers for impropriety and made no change to any of the honours that Antigonus had been awarded. This was a wise decision, where both the city’s reputation and its best interests were concerned, [7] because the high-mindedness and constancy of such a decision by a democracy* not only won the Rhodians praise from the world at large, but also caused their besiegers some remorse. After all, they were liberating cities in Greece which had never responded to their benefactions with loyalty, while they were plainly trying to enslave a city which had proved itself to be perfectly constant in repaying favours. The decision also protected the Rhodians against the vicissitudes of Fortune, in the sense that, if it so happened that the city fell, the memory that they had upheld their friendship would persist as a way for them to plead for mercy. So this was a wise decision by the Rhodians.
94. When Demetrius’ sappers had undermined the wall, a deserter told the besieged Rhodians that the men working in the underground tunnels would soon be inside the city. [2] The Rhodians therefore dug a deep trench, parallel to the stretch of wall that was expected to collapse, and before long their own mining work had brought them into contact underground with their opponents and they had stopped them advancing further. [3] Both sides posted sentinels to watch over the mines, and some of Demetrius’ men tried to bribe the officer whom the Rhodians had put in charge of the guard. His name was Athenagoras, and he was a Milesian by birth, but he had been dispatched to Rhodes by Ptolemy as the captain of the mercenaries.* [4] He promised to turn traitor and named a day when Demetrius should send one of his senior officers to come up into the city through the tunnel under cover of darkness, so that he could see the place where the soldiers would arrive. [5] But after raising Demetrius’ hopes so greatly, Athenagoras informed the Rhodian council, and when Demetrius sent one of his Friends, a Macedonian called Alexander, the Rhodians seized him after he had climbed up into the city through the mine. They awarded Athenagoras a golden crown and presented him with five talents of silver, because they wanted to encourage loyalty towards the people in the rest of the mercenaries and foreign troops.
95. Once all his siege engines had been completed and the space leading up to the wall had been entirely cleared, Demetrius stationed the city-taker in the centre and deployed the sheds which were to protect the work of filling in the moat. There were eight of these and he stationed four on either side of the tower, and joined a gallery on to each of them to make it possible for the men to come and go, and do their work in safety. He also deployed two huge ram-bearing sheds, each of which had a ram† 120 cubits long, reinforced with iron* and capable of delivering a blow similar to that of a ship’s ram. It was not difficult to get the ram moving forward, because it was on wheels and energy was imparted to it in battle by a crew of at least a thousand men.
[2] Just prior to moving the contraptions up to the city walls, he placed the appropriate stone-throwers and bolt-shooters side by side on each floor of the city-taker, [3] sent his ships against the harbours and the areas adjacent to the harbours, and distributed his infantry wherever the remaining stretches of wall could be attacked. [4] Then all his men raised the battle-cry at once in response to a single command and signal, and he set about attacking the city from every side. But as he was battering the walls with his rams and stone-throwers, envoys arrived from Cnidus, who asked him to hold off and promised to persuade the Rhodians to accept the most feasible of his demands. [5] The king broke off the attack and the envoys went back and forth, busy about their negotiations, but in the end they were unable to forge an agreement and the siege started up again. Demetrius caused the collapse of the strongest of the city’s towers, which was made out of square-cut blocks of stone, and weakened an entire curtain wall, so that the defenders were no longer able to gain access to the battlements at that point.
96. Around this time King Ptolemy sent a large number of supply ships to Rhodes, carrying three hundred thousand artabas of grain* and pulses as well. [2] As they were approaching the city, Demetrius sent ships to try to bring them to land at his camp, but a wind sprang up that favoured the Egyptians and they swept along under full sail and docked in the proper harbours, while the ships sent by Demetrius returned empty-handed. [3] Cassander too sent the Rhodians ten thousand medimnoi of barley, and Lysimachus gave them forty thousand medimnoi of wheat and the same amount of barley. Now that the Rhodians had such large stocks of supplies, their morale rose—the siege had by then ground them down mentally—and they decided that their best course of action was to attack the enemy’s siege engines. They made a large number of fire-throwing devices ready, stationed all their stone-throwers and bolt-shooters on the wall, [4] and that night, at about the second watch, they began without warning to bombard the city-taker with fire-bearing missiles. All their other kinds of missiles were used to shoot down the men who were congregating there.
[5] The unexpectedness of the attack made Demetrius concerned for the safety of the devices he had built, and he ran to the rescue. [6] It was a moonless night, and the fire-bearing missiles glowed as they hurtled through the air, but the missiles fired by the bolt-shooters and stone-throwers were invisible, and a lot of men died because they were unable to see what was coming at them. [7] Some of the plates on the city-taker happened to have fallen off, leaving an area unclad, and the fire-bearing missiles were striking the exposed wood of the structure. Demetrius was worried, therefore, that the fire would spread and that in the end the entire tower would be ruined, so he lost no time in coming to the rescue. He tried to extinguish the spreading fire with water that had been stored on every floor of the tower, and eventually he used the trumpet to round up the men whose job it was to move the contraptions and they pulled them back out of range of the Rhodians’ missiles.
97. Then, the next day, he ordered the camp followers to collect the missiles that had been fired by the Rhodians, because he wanted to use them to calculate how much ordnance they had in the city. [2] His orders were soon carried out, and more than eight hundred fire-bearing missiles were found of various sizes and at least 1,500 catapult bolts. That was a great many missiles to have been fired, at night, in a short space of time, and Demetrius was impressed by the resources the Rhodians possessed and by their prodigal use of them.
[3] Next he repaired the damaged devices and saw to the burial of the dead and the treatment of the wounded. [4] Meanwhile, the Rhodians used the respite they had gained from assaults by the siege engines to build a third wall. This one was crescent-shaped and included within its arc every stretch of wall that was at risk. Despite this, they also dug a deep trench to protect the part of the wall that had collapsed, to make it difficult for the king to launch a sudden assault on the city and break his way in. [5] They also sent out the best sailers of their navy, with Amyntas in command, and he sailed over to their Peraia in Asia* and took by surprise some pirates who had been sent there by Demetrius. They had three undecked galleys and the reputation of being the best men in the king’s army. A brief battle took place, in which the Rhodians overpowered the pirates and captured the ships along with their crews, including the pirates’ leader, Timocles. [6] They also attacked some merchantmen, seized quite a few galleys which were fully laden with grain, and brought both them and the pirate ships back to Rhodes under cover of darkness, without being spotted by the enemy.
[7] Once Demetrius had repaired his damaged towers, he brought them up to the wall. He drove back the men who were stationed on the battlements with a relentless barrage of missiles from all his artillery pieces, while with his rams he battered the adjacent area and brought down two curtain walls. The Rhodians, however, were determined to save the tower in between these walls, and fierce and continuous conflicts broke out, one after another, with the result that even their general, Ananias, died fighting fervently, and many ordinary soldiers also lost their lives.
98. Meanwhile, King Ptolemy sent the Rhodians at least the same amount of grain and other supplies as he had sent before, along with 1,500 soldiers under the command of a Macedonian called Antigonus. [2] At the same time, envoys came to Demetrius from Athens and other Greek cities. There were more than fifty of them, and with one voice they asked the king to make peace with the Rhodians. [3] A truce was accordingly arranged, and many arguments of various kinds were presented to the Rhodian assembly and Demetrius; but they found it impossible to reach agreement, and the envoys therefore returned without having accomplished their mission.
[4] Demetrius decided to launch a night attack on the city at the point where the wall had been brought down, and he selected the most suitable men from the army, including his best fighters. This task force consisted of about 1,500 men, [5] and their orders were to approach the wall silently at about the second watch of the night. He also deployed men on either side of the city and it was their job to raise the battle-cry at his signal and attack from both land and sea. [6] His orders were duly carried out, and the force that made for the breach in the wall cut down the pickets at the trench, burst into the city, and occupied the area by the theatre. [7] When the Rhodian Prytanes learnt what had happened and saw that the entire city was in turmoil, they ordered the troops who were stationed at the harbour and on the walls to remain at their posts and to keep those on the outside at bay, in the event of an attack, while they took the elite battalion and the soldiers who had recently arrived from Alexandria and set out against those who had forced their way inside the wall.
[8] When daylight returned and Demetrius raised the standard, the men who had been designated to attack the harbour and those who had taken up positions all around the wall shouted out their battle-cry to encourage their comrades who had occupied part of the theatre district, while the massed women and children in Rhodes gave way to fear and tears in the belief that their city was being taken by storm. [9] Nevertheless, a battle took place between the Rhodians and those who had forced their way into the city, with heavy losses on both sides. For a while, neither side broke formation, but Rhodian numbers were constantly increasing and they had no hesitation about facing danger, since they were fighting for their homeland and all that they held most dear. The king’s men found themselves hard pressed, and in the end Alcimus and Mantias, the senior officers, died from the many wounds they had received and most of the other soldiers of the task force either died fighting or were captured, though a few fled and made it safely back to the king. Many of the Rhodians lost their lives as well, including Damoteles, one of the Prytanes, a man who had been famous for his valour.
99. It seemed to Demetrius that it was only bad luck that had denied him the capture of the city when it had appeared to be within his grasp, and he got ready to resume the siege. But then his father wrote and told him to make peace with the Rhodians on the best terms he could, and Demetrius began to wait for the perfect opportunity, one that would give him a plausible reason for coming to terms. [2] Since Ptolemy had written to the Rhodians, saying, in the first instance, that he would be sending them a great quantity of grain and three thousand soldiers, but then later advising them to make peace on reasonable terms with Antigonus, if they could, everyone was inclining towards peace. [3] Just then envoys arrived from the Aetolian Confederacy to argue for peace, and the Rhodians made peace with Demetrius on the following terms: the city was to be self-governing and ungarrisoned; it would keep its revenues;* the Rhodians would fight for Antigonus as his allies, except if he went to war with Ptolemy; and they would give as hostages a hundred of their citizens, who would be chosen by Demetrius, with city officials exempt.
100. So this was how the Rhodians brought the war to an end after the siege had gone on a year.* They honoured with the appropriate rewards men who had fought bravely in battle and granted freedom and citizenship to slaves who had proved their courage. [2] They also erected statues of King Cassander and King Lysimachus—not that they took first prize, in their opinion, but they had still contributed significantly towards keeping the city safe. [3] But in Ptolemy’s case they wanted to repay his favour with an even greater one, and they sent sacred ambassadors* to Libya, to ask the oracle of Ammon whether he advised them to honour Ptolemy as a god.* [4] The oracle gave its approval, and they consecrated a square precinct in the city, which they called the Ptolemaeum, and built on each of its sides a stade-long stoa. They also rebuilt the theatre, the collapsed stretches of wall, and the parts of other districts that had been destroyed, all far more beautifully than before.
[5] Now that Demetrius had made peace with the Rhodians as his father had wanted,* he sailed away with his entire army and, after skirting the islands, he put in at Aulis in Boeotia. [6] Cassander and Polyperchon had enjoyed impunity in the recent past and were ravaging most of Greece, so Demetrius planned to free the Greeks. He first liberated Chalcis, which had been garrisoned by the Boeotians, and the Boeotians were so terrified that they felt compelled to abandon their friendship with Cassander.* Then he entered into an alliance with the Aetolians* and set about getting ready for war with Polyperchon and Cassander.
[7] Meanwhile, Eumelus, the king of Bosporus, died in the sixth year of his reign, and his son, Spartacus,* succeeded to the throne and reigned for twenty years.
101. Now that I have elucidated developments in Greece and Asia, I shall move on to other parts of the world. In Sicily, Agathocles launched a surprise attack on the people of Lipara, even though they were not at war with him, and exacted fifty talents of silver from them—from people who had done him no prior harm at all. [2] Now, many people agree that the facts I am about to recount reveal the activity of the gods, in that his lawless behaviour earned the attention of the divine. This is what happened. Although the Liparaeans asked him for more time to come up with the full amount, since there was a shortfall, and said that they had never misused their sacred dedications, Agathocles insisted that they give him the dedications from the town hall, some of which had inscriptions to Aeolus, others to Hephaestus. As soon as he had been given them he sailed away—and eleven of the ships that were carrying the money were wrecked in a gale. [3] And so it occurred to many people that the god who was said in those parts to be the master of the winds* had punished Agathocles straight away, as soon as he set sail, and that it was Hephaestus’ turn at the end, when he came up with a punishment for the tyrant in his homeland that fitted his crime, by burning him alive on hot coals, as you would expect from a being named Hephaestus.* After all, it takes the same moral code and sense of justice to refrain from harming those who were saving their parents at Etna* and to deliberately hunt down those who commit sacrilege against the divine.
[4] However, as far as Agathocles’ death is concerned, when we come to its proper place in the narrative the facts will confirm the truth of what I have just said, but I must turn now to events in nearby Italy. [5] Embassies came and went between the Romans and the Samnites, and they made peace with each other,* after having been at war for twenty-two years and six months. One of the consuls, Publius Sempronius, invaded the territory of the Aecli* and it took him fifty days in all to capture forty towns. He compelled the entire people to submit to Rome, and then returned home and celebrated a famous triumph. The Roman people entered into an alliance with the Marsi, the Paeligni, and the Marrucini.*
102. At the beginning of the following year, Leostratus became Archon in Athens, and Servius Cornelius and Lucius Genucius were the consuls in Rome. In this year:
Demetrius undertook to carry on fighting Cassander and liberating the Greeks, but his first project was to settle Greek affairs. His thinking was not just that allowing the Greeks their independence would earn him great glory, but also that, before proceeding against Cassander in person, he should first eliminate Prepelaus and the rest of Cassander’s generals, and only then attack Macedon itself.†
[2] He launched a surprise attack by night on the city of Sicyon, which was garrisoned by Ptolemaic troops* under the command of Philip, a very illustrious general, and broke into the city. The garrison then retreated to the acropolis and Demetrius made himself the master of the lower town and occupied the area between the residential district and the citadel. He was about to bring up his siege engines when the terrified soldiers surrendered the acropolis on terms and sailed off to Egypt. Demetrius rehoused the Sicyonians on the acropolis and demolished the part of the city next to the harbour, on the grounds that it was completely indefensible. He helped the citizens with the building work and restored their freedom, and for the favour he had shown them he was awarded godlike honours by the Sicyonians. [3] They named the city Demetrias and voted to perform sacrifices, celebrate festivals, and hold games in his honour every year, and to grant him all the other honours that are proper for the founder of a city.*
Time with its periodic alteration of conditions has eliminated these honours by now, but, seeing that the site to which they moved was a vast improvement, the Sicyonians have continued to live there right down to our own day. [4] The area enclosed by the acropolis wall is level, spacious, and surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs which leave no point where siege engines can be brought close. There is plenty of water there, which has enabled them to create luxuriant gardens. In short, it looks as though the king was exercising sound foresight when he came up with his plan, in terms of both peacetime amenities and wartime safety.
103. After putting Sicyonian affairs in order, Demetrius set out at full strength to Corinth, where Cassander’s general Prepelaus was in charge of the garrison. He was let inside through a postern gate at night by some of the citizens, and immediately took control of the city and its harbours.* [2] The garrison soldiers withdrew either to the so-named Sisypheium or to the Acrocorinth,* but Demetrius brought siege engines up to the fortifications and took the Sisypheium by storm, although he suffered serious losses in doing so. Then, when the soldiers from there fled to those who had occupied the Acrocorinth, he intimidated them too into surrendering the citadel. [3] This king had such a good technical mind when it came to building siege engines that he was extremely difficult to resist when he was assaulting a place. After the liberation of Corinth he installed a guard on the Acrocorinth,* because the Corinthians wanted the city to be protected by the king until the war against Cassander came to an end.
[4] Following his ignominious ejection from Corinth, Prepelaus retreated to Cassander, while Demetrius went to Achaea. He took Bura by storm and gave the citizens back their independence, and then he captured Scyrus*—it took only a few days—and expelled the garrison. [5] Then he marched against Orchomenus in Arcadia and ordered Strombichus, the commander of the garrison, to surrender the town to him. Strombichus refused and even heaped foul abuse on Demetrius from the city wall, so the king brought up siege engines, brought down the wall, and took the city by storm. [6] He crucified Strombichus, who had been appointed by Polyperchon to command the garrison, in front of the town along with about eighty others who were hostile to him, and he incorporated into his own forces the approximately two thousand mercenaries whom he captured.
[7] After the fall of Orchomenus, the commanders of the nearby hill-forts, realizing that it would be impossible for them to avoid being overwhelmed by the king, surrendered their strongholds to him. Likewise, since Cassander, Prepelaus, and Polyperchon were not coming to help them, and since Demetrius was approaching with a large army and the best siege engines, the commanders of the garrisons in towns also voluntarily withdrew their forces. That was how things stood with Demetrius.*
104. In Italy, the Tarentines, who were at war with the Lucanians and the Romans, sent envoys to Sparta, asking for reinforcements and for Cleonymus as general.* [2] The Lacedaemonians had no hesitation about sending them the leader they were asking for, and when the Tarentines sent money and ships, Cleonymus recruited five thousand soldiers at Taenarum in Laconia* and before long he had put in at Tarentum. He recruited there at least the same number again of mercenaries, and from the citizen body he enrolled more than twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse. He also won the support of both the majority of the Italian Greeks and the Messapians.* [3] His forces were so strong now that the terrified Lucanians entered into a pact of friendship with the Tarentines, and when the people of Metapontum refused to submit to him he persuaded the Lucanians to invade their territory and seized the opportunity to cow the Metapontines into submission.
Entering the city as a friend, he exacted more than six hundred talents of silver from them and took two hundred unmarried girls from the highest-ranking families as hostages—not so much to secure the city’s fidelity as to satisfy his own lust. [4] For, once he had put off Spartan clothing, he lived a life of luxury and treated those who had trusted him as his slaves. Despite the strength of his army and his abundant supplies, he did nothing worthy of Sparta. He contemplated a campaign in Sicily, to put an end to Agathocles’ tyranny and give the Siceliots back their independence, but then he postponed this expedition for the time being and sailed to Corcyra, where he gained control of the city, exacted a great deal of money, and installed a garrison, since he intended to make the place his headquarters while waiting for developments in Greece.
105. And indeed, before very much time had passed envoys came to him from both Demetrius Poliorcetes and Cassander to ask for alliances, but he joined neither of them. Instead, when he found out that the Tarentines and some of the others had risen up against him, he left an adequate guard in Corcyra and quickly sailed with the rest of his forces to Italy, to bring the rebels to heel. He came to land in territory that was defended by the barbarians, captured their town,* enslaved the population, and plundered the farmland. [2] He also besieged and took a town called Triopium and gained about three thousand prisoners. But then the barbarians from the countryside banded together and attacked his camp at night. In the battle, they killed more than two hundred of Cleonymus’ men and took about a thousand prisoners. [3] Moreover, a storm arose during this battle and destroyed twenty of his ships that were lying at anchor near the camp. After these two serious setbacks, Cleonymus sailed back to Corcyra with his forces.*
106. At the beginning of the following year, Nicocles became Archon in Athens, and in Rome Marcus Livius and Marcus Aemilius were the next to be appointed to the consulate. In this year:
Cassander, the king of Macedon, seeing that the Greeks were getting stronger* and that the conquest of Macedon was the sole objective of the war, became very alarmed about what the future might hold for him. [2] He therefore sent envoys to Antigonus in Asia, asking for a peace treaty with him. But Antigonus replied that he recognized only one basis for a settlement and that was if Cassander were to give up his possessions. This frightened Cassander and he asked Lysimachus to come from Thrace so that they could make common cause in the supreme struggle. [3] It was Cassander’s invariable practice, when he was faced with the greatest danger, to get help from Lysimachus, not just because of the Thracian king’s abilities, but also because his kingdom bordered Macedon.
After the kings had met and discussed what was the most advantageous course of action for both of them, they sent envoys to Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, and to Seleucus, the master of the upper satrapies, stressing the arrogance of Antigonus’ reply and explaining that the war posed a threat for all of them together, [4] because if Antigonus gained control of Macedon, it would take him little time to deprive the others of their kingdoms as well. After all, they pointed out, Antigonus had often given them proof of his ambition and had demonstrated that he kept all power for himself and shared it with no one. They argued that it would be in all of their best interests to work together and make war against Antigonus their common project. [5] Ptolemy and Seleucus agreed; they were not slow in giving their consent, and they undertook to come in strength to one another’s assistance.
107. Cassander, however, chose not to wait for the enemy to attack, but to march against them first and seize the advantage. He therefore gave Lysimachus part of his army and sent a general along with it, while he went with the rest of his forces to Thessaly, where he intended to fight Demetrius and the Greeks. [2] Lysimachus crossed over from Europe to Asia with his army. Lampsacus and Parium voluntarily gave him their allegiance, so he left them free, but since he had to besiege Sigeum into submission he installed a garrison there.* Then he gave his general, Prepelaus,* six thousand foot and a thousand horse, and sent him off to win over the cities in Aeolis and Ionia, while he set about besieging Abydus and equipping himself with artillery, siege engines, and so on. [3] After a while, however, a large body of soldiers sailed in, sent by Demetrius to help the besieged people of Abydus, and since there were enough of these men to make the city safe, Lysimachus gave up this attempt. Instead he won over Hellespontine Phrygia and besieged the town of Synnada, where a large amount of the king’s possessions were kept. [4] At this juncture he persuaded Antigonus’ general, Docimus, to come over to his side,* and with his help he took Synnada and some of the fortresses where the king’s valuables were stored.
In the course of his march, Prepelaus, the general who had been sent by Lysimachus to Aeolis and Ionia, gained Adramyttium, and then, when he put Ephesus under siege, the terrified inhabitants surrendered the city to him. He repatriated the hundred Rhodian hostages* who were being held there and left the Ephesians free,† but because the enemy had control of the sea—and because the final outcome of the war was uncertain—he burnt all the ships he found in the harbour. [5] Then he won over Teus and Colophon. He was unable to take Erythrae and Clazomenae because help arrived by sea, but he ravaged their farmland before setting off for Sardis. There, once he had persuaded Antigonus’ general, Phoenix, to break with the king, he gained the city, but not the citadel, because Philip, one of Antigonus’ Friends, was defending it and remained loyal to the man who had entrusted it to him. That was how things stood with Lysimachus.
108. Antigonus had decided to hold a major festival in Antigonea, involving athletic and other contests, and by offering generous prizes and fees he had assembled the most famous athletes and artists from all over the world. But when he heard about Lysimachus’ arrival in Asia and the defection of his generals, he cancelled the festival and paid off the athletes and artists, at a cost of at least two hundred talents. [2] Then he gathered his army and set out by forced marches from Syria to confront the enemy. When he reached Tarsus in Cilicia, he gave his men their wages for three months, using money that he had brought down from Cyinda. [3] In addition to this money, he was also carrying three thousand talents with the army, to draw on for his expenses.
After Tarsus, he crossed the Taurus and headed for Cappadocia. Then he attacked those who had deserted his cause in upper Phrygia and Lycaonia and brought them back into his alliance. [4] Just at this time, Lysimachus, responding to the news of the enemy’s arrival, held a meeting of his council to decide what to do in the face of this threat. [5] They decided not to engage Antigonus in battle until Seleucus had arrived from the upper satrapies,* but to occupy a defensible location, secure their camp with a palisade and trench, and wait for the enemy’s approach. These measures were rapidly put into effect.
When Antigonus was near the enemy’s position, he drew up his forces and issued a challenge to battle. [6] No one ventured to come out against him, so he occupied certain places through which his opponents’ supplies were bound to have to pass. Lysimachus was worried that, if their food supply was cut off, they would be at the mercy of the enemy, so he broke camp at night, marched for four hundred stades, and halted at Dorylaeum, [7] which had plenty of grain and other supplies, and lay on the banks of a river that could afford protection to an army that was encamped there. So he pitched camp and fortified it with a deep trench and a triple palisade.
109. As soon as Antigonus found out about the enemy’s withdrawal, he set out after them. He halted near their camp and, since they refused battle, he began to surround their encampment with a trench, and he sent for catapults and artillery, because he intended to assault their position. There were some clashes between light-armed troops at the trench, as Lysimachus tried to drive off the men working on it, but Antigonus always came off best. [2] Time passed and the trench was nearing completion, and then, since the besieged were becoming short of food, Lysimachus waited for a stormy night, broke camp, and retreated over the hills to winter quarters.*
At daybreak, when Antigonus saw that the enemy had left, he had his men shadow them on the plains. [3] The rain poured down, and since the land had deep, clayey soil, many pack animals and a few men were lost, and in general everyone in the army found the going very tough. [4] Wanting to let his men recover from their ordeal, and also because he could see that winter was drawing in, the king gave up the pursuit, chose the best spots for winter quarters, and divided his army up. [5] However, when he found out that Seleucus was on his way from the upper satrapies with a large army, he sent some of his friends to Demetrius in Greece, ordering him to join him with his army at the earliest possible opportunity. He wanted to be absolutely certain that he was not forced to decide the outcome of the war on the battlefield, with all the kings united against him, before his European forces had arrived.
[6] Lysimachus did much the same: he too divided his army up for wintering, in the plain called Salonia. He was plentifully supplied from Heraclea, because he had made a marriage alliance with the city [7] by taking as his wife Amastris, who was the daughter of Oxyartes, niece of King Darius, and former wife of Craterus (in a marriage arranged by Alexander), and was now the ruler of the city.* That was how things stood in Asia.
110. In Greece, Demetrius, who was in Athens, wanted to be initiated into the Mysteries and to experience the rite at Eleusis. There was still some time to go before the official day on which the Athenians normally celebrated the rites, but he persuaded the Assembly to repay him for his benefactions by altering the way things were traditionally done. So he presented himself in civilian clothes to the priests and was initiated before the appointed day.*
He then left Athens, [2] and his first stop was Chalcis in Euboea, where he had his fleet and land army congregate. But then he found out that Cassander had already occupied the pass;* realizing that it would not be possible for him to reach Thessaly by land, he transported his army by sea and put in at the harbour of Larisa.* No sooner had he disembarked his troops than the town surrendered, and, once he had taken the acropolis, he bound the garrison troops in fetters and placed them under guard. Then he gave the people of Larisa back their independence. [3] Next he won over Antrones and Pteleum, and thereby made it impossible for Cassander, who was in the process of moving the peoples of Dium and Orchomenus to Thebes,* to complete the relocation.
When Cassander saw how well everything was going for Demetrius, he increased the strength of the garrisons guarding Pherae and Thebes, and, once he had united all his forces, he made camp in close proximity to Demetrius. [4] He had in all about 29,000 foot and 2,000 horse, while Demetrius’ army consisted of 1,500 horse, at least 8,000 Macedonian infantrymen, about 15,000 mercenaries, 25,000 soldiers from the Greek cities, and at least 8,000 light-armed troops, including all the various kinds of pillagers who gather for wars and opportunities for plunder. In other words, the total number of his foot soldiers was about 56,000.
[5] The two armies confronted each other for many days. Both sides drew up their forces, but neither of them chose to provoke battle, since they were both waiting for the outcome of the decisive battle in Asia. [6] But when the people of Pherae appealed to him, Demetrius forced his way into the city with a division of his army and besieged the citadel into submission. He let Cassander’s soldiers leave under a truce and gave the Pheraeans back their liberty.
111. That was the situation in Thessaly when the men sent by Antigonus reached Demetrius. They made his father’s wishes quite clear and told him to take his army over to Asia as soon as possible. [2] Realizing that he had no choice but to obey his father, the king made peace with Cassander on the understanding that their pact would be valid only if it was acceptable to his father. In actual fact, he knew perfectly well that Antigonus would not approve the agreement, since he had firmly decided to bring the present war to an end by force of arms, but Demetrius wanted to give his withdrawal from Greece a respectable veneer and to make it look less like flight. By the same token, one of the conditions included in the agreement was that the Greek cities, whether in Greece or in Asia, were to be free.
[3] Demetrius next equipped himself with transport vessels to convey his men and matériel, and put to sea with his entire fleet. He sailed past the islands and put in at Ephesus, where he disembarked his forces and made camp near the city walls. He forced the city to revert to its former alignment* and let the soldiers of the garrison (which had been installed by Prepelaus, Lysimachus’ general) leave under a truce. Once he had established his own guard in the citadel, he went to the Hellespont and recovered Lampsacus, Parium, and a few other towns that had gone over to the other side. Then he went to the entrance to the Black Sea, where he built a camp by the Sanctuary of the Chalcedonians* and left three thousand foot and thirty warships to guard the place. Then he divided the rest of his forces up and sent them to this town or that for the winter.
[4] Another event of this year was that Mithridates, who owed allegiance to Antigonus but was widely believed to be abandoning him in favour of Cassander, was killed at Cius in Mysia,* after having ruled Cius and [. . .]* for thirty five years. His heir, Mithridates, acquired many new subjects, and ruled over Cappadocia and Paphlagonia for thirty-six years.*
112. Around this time, after the departure of Demetrius, Cassander regained the cities of Thessaly and sent Pleistarchus to Asia with an army of twelve thousand foot and five hundred horse to help Lysimachus. [2] But when Pleistarchus reached the entrance to the Black Sea and found that the region was already in enemy hands, he gave up the idea of crossing over to Asia there, and instead went to Odessus, which lies between Apollonia and Callatis, facing Heraclea on the Asian coastline, where some of Lysimachus’ forces were. [3] Since he did not have enough transports to take all his men across at once, he divided them into three. The first division to be dispatched crossed safely to Heraclea, but the second was captured by the ships that were guarding the entrance to the Black Sea. Pleistarchus himself was crossing with the third division when a storm arose of such ferocity that most of the ships and men were lost. [4] In fact, the hexareme which had the general on board sank and there were only thirty-three survivors out of the five hundred men, at least, who were sailing in her. But one of the survivors was Pleistarchus, who had grabbed hold of a piece of wreckage and was cast ashore half dead. He was taken to Heraclea, and after he had recovered from the disaster he went to join Lysimachus in winter quarters, having lost most of his forces.
113. Another thing that happened around this time was that King Ptolemy set out from Egypt with a substantial army and gained the submission of all the cities of Coele Syria.* But, while he was besieging Sidon, some men came to him with a false report. They said that the kings had fought a battle, that Lysimachus and Seleucus had been beaten and had retreated to Heraclea, and that the victorious Antigonus was now on his way to Syria with an army. [2] Ptolemy was taken in by them and, believing the report to be true, he made a truce of four months with the Sidonians, secured with garrisons the cities that had fallen to him, and withdrew back to Egypt with his army.
[3] Meanwhile, some of Lysimachus’ soldiers—two thousand Autariatae and about eight hundred Lycians and Pamphylians—deserted from their winter quarters and went over to Antigonus.† Antigonus made them welcome, paid them the wages they said they were owed by Lysimachus, and honoured them with gifts. [4] Just then Seleucus arrived as well; from the upper satrapies he had crossed the mountains into Cappadocia with a large army, where he had wintered, with his men in huts that he had had them make. He had about twenty thousand foot, about twelve thousand horse (including mounted archers), 480 elephants, and more than a hundred scythed chariots.
[5] So the kings’ forces were assembling, since they were all determined to decide the war on the battlefield in the coming summer. But, in keeping with the plan announced at the beginning of this book, I shall make the war that these kings fought against one another for supremacy the starting point of the next book.*