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1

At the end of this year Alexias was archon in Athens and in Rome in the place of consuls three military tribunes were elected, Gaius Julius, Publius Cornelius, and Gaius Servilius. When these had entered office, the Athenians, after the execution of the generals, put Philocles in command, and turning over the fleet to him, they sent him to Conon with orders that they should share the leadership of the armaments in common. [2] After he had joined Conon in Samos, he manned all the ships which numbered one hundred and seventy-three. Of these it was decided to leave twenty at Samos, and with all the rest they set out for the Hellespont under the command of Conon and Philocles. [3]

Lysander, the admiral of the Lacedaemonians, having collected thirty-five ships from his neighbouring allies of the Peloponnesus, put in at Ephesus; and after summoning also the fleet from Chios he made it ready. He also went inland to Cyrus, the son of King Darius, and received from him a great sum of money with which to maintain his soldiers. [4] And Cyrus, since his father was summoning him to Persia, turned over to Lysander the authority over the cities under his command and ordered them to pay the tribute to him. Lysander, then, after being thus supplied with every means for making war, returned to Ephesus. [5]

At the same time certain men in Miletus, who were striving for an oligarchy, with the aid of the Lacedaemonians put an end to the government of the people. First of all, while the Dionysia was being celebrated, they seized in their homes and carried off their principal opponents and put some forty of them to the sword, and then, at the time when the market-place was full, they picked out three hundred of the wealthiest citizens and slew them. [6] The most respectable citizens among those who favoured the people, not less than one thousand, fearing the situation they were in, fled to Pharnabazus the satrap, who received them kindly and giving each of them a gold stater2 settled them in Blauda, a fortress of Lydia. [7]

Lysander, sailing with the larger part of his ships to Iasus in Caria, took the city, which was an ally of the Athenians, by storm, put to the sword the males of military age to the number of eight hundred, sold the children and women as booty, and razed the city to the ground. [8] After this he sailed against Attica and many places, but accomplished nothing of importance or worthy of record; consequently we have not taken pains to recount these events. Finally, capturing Lampsacus,3 he let the Athenian garrison depart under a truce, but seized the property of the inhabitants and then returned the city to them.

1 405 B.C.

2 Probably the Persian daric, whose bullion worth was about $5.40 or one pound, three shillings.

3 In the Troad about thirty-five miles up the Hellespont.

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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