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Soon, however, both those who had urged this action and those whom they had persuaded repented, as if the deity had become wroth with them; for those who had been deceived got the wages of their error when not long afterwards they fell before the power of not one despot only but of thirty1; [2] and the deceiver, who had also proposed the measure, Callixenus, when once the populace had repented, was brought to trial on the charge of having deceived the people, and without being allowed to speak in his defence he was put in chains and thrown into the public prison; and secretly burrowing his way out of the prison with certain others he managed to make his way to the enemy at Deceleia, to the end that by escaping death he might have the finger of scorn pointed at his turpitude not only in Athens but also wherever else there were Greeks throughout his entire life. [3]

Now these, we may say, were the events of this year. And of the historians Philistus2 ended his first History of Sicily with this year and the capture of Acragas, treating a period of more than eight hundred years in seven Books, and he began his second History where the first leaves off and wrote four Books.3 [4]

At this same time Sophocles the son of Sophilus, the writer of tragedies, died at the age of ninety years, after he had won the prize eighteen4 times. And we are told of this man that when he presented his last tragedy and won the prize, he was filled with insuperable jubilation which was also the cause of his death. [5] And Apollodorus,5 who composed his Chronology, states that Euripides also died in the same year; although others say that he was living at the court of Archelaus, the king of Macedonia, and that once when he went out in the countryside, he was set upon by dogs and torn to pieces a little before this time.

1 The "Thirty Tyrants" (cp. Book 14.3 ff.).

2 Of Syracuse (cp. supra, chap. 91.4).

3 Philistus also wrote two more Books on the younger Dionysius (cp. Book 15.89.3), a total of thirteen Books on Sicily.

4 The eighteen firsts are confirmed by the "Victory" inscription (I.G. 2.977a).

5 A philosopher and historian of Athens of the second century B.C. (cp. Book 1.5.1). His Chronology covered the years 1184-119 B.C.

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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