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Contents of the Thirteenth Book of Diodorus
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112chapter 113chapter 114
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The Athenians, while they pursued the defeated foe for a
considerable distance, filled the whole area of the sea in the neighbourhood of the battle with
corpses and the wreckage of ships. After this some of the generals thought that they should
pick up the dead, since the Athenians are incensed at those who allow the dead to go
unburied,1 but others of them said they should sail to
Mitylene and raise the siege with all speed.
[2]
But in the
meantime a great storm arose, so that the ships were tossed about and the soldiers, by reason
both of the hardships they had suffered in the battle and the heavy waves, opposed picking up
the dead.
[3]
And finally, since the storm increased in violence,
they neither sailed to Mitylene nor picked up the dead but were forced by the winds to put in
at the Arginusae. The losses in the battle were twenty-five ships of the Athenians together
with most of their crews and seventy-seven of the Peloponnesians;
[4]
and as a result of the loss of so many ships and of the sailors who manned them the
coastline of the territory of the Cymaeans and Phocaeans was strewn with corpses and wreckage.
[5]
When Eteonicus, who was
besieging Mitylene, learned from someone of the defeat of the Peloponnesians, he sent his ships
to Chios and himself retreated with his land forces to the city of the Pyrrhaeans,2 which was an ally;
for he feared lest, if the Athenians should sail against his troops with their fleet and the
besieged make a sortie from the city, he should run the risk of losing his entire force.
[6]
And the generals of the Athenians, after sailing to Mitylene
and picking up Conon and his forty ships, put in at Samos, and from there as their base they
set about laying waste the territory of the enemy.
[7]
After this
the inhabitants of Aeolis and Ionia and of the islands which were allies of the Lacedaemonians
gathered in Ephesus, and as they counselled together they resolved to send to Sparta and to ask
for Lysander as admiral; for during the time Lysander had been in command of the fleet he had
enjoyed many successes and was believed to excel all others in skill as a general.
[8]
The Lacedaemonians, however, having a law not to send the same man twice
and being unwilling to break the custom of their fathers, chose Aracus as admiral but sent
Lysander with him as an ordinary citizen,3 commanding Aracus to follow the advice of Lysander in every
matter. These leaders, having been dispatched to assume the command, set about assembling the
greatest possible number of triremes from both the Peloponnesus and their allies.
1 Aelian (Aelian Var. Hist. 5.14) states that the Athenians had a law requiring anyone who happened upon an unburied human body to cast earth upon it.
2 Some fifteen miles west of Mitylene.
3 Xenophon's statement (Xen. Hell. 2.1.7) is more precise and credible. He says that the law forbade a man "to hold the office of admiral twice" and that Lysander was sent as "vice-admiral."
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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