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Now the first contingent, composed of the Boeotians, took the middle route to the city known as Sellasia1 and caused its inhabitants to revolt from the Lacedaemonians. [2] The Argives, entering by the borders of Tegeatis,2 engaged in battle the garrison set to guard the pass, slew its leader Alexander the Spartan and about two hundred of the rest, amongst whom were the Boeotian refugees. [3] The third contingent, composed of the Arcadians and containing the largest number, invaded the district called Sciritis,3 which had a large garrison under Ischolas, a man of conspicuous valour and shrewdness. Himself one of the most distinguished soldiers, he accomplished an heroic and memorable deed. [4] For, seeing that, because of the overwhelming number of the enemy, all who joined battle with them would be killed, he decided that while it was not in keeping with Spartan dignity to abandon his post in the pass, yet it would be useful to his country to preserve the men. He therefore in an amazing manner provided for both objects and emulated the courageous exploit of King Leonidas at Thermopylae.4 [5] For he picked out the young men and sent them back to Sparta to be of service to her in her hour of deadly peril. He himself, keeping his post with the older men, slew many of the enemy, but finally, encircled by the Arcadians, perished with all his corps. [6] The Eleians, who formed the fourth contingent, marching by other unguarded regions, reached Sellasia, for this was the locality designated to all as the rendezvous. When all the army had gathered in Sellasia, they advanced upon Sparta itself, sacking and burning the countryside.

1 A rendezvous deep in Laconian territory north of Sparta.

2 South-eastern corner of Arcadia bordering Argolis.

3 A high mountainous district in the north of Laconia on the road leading from Sparta to Tegea.

4 The historic occasion, 480 B.C., when Leonidas sent home all but three hundred Spartans, whom he kept to hold up Xerxes' advance. See Book 11.11.

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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