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Contents of the Twelfth 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 84
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The Lacedaemonians together with the
Peloponnesians and their other allies invaded Attica
for a second time. In their advance through the country they chopped down orchards and burned
the farm-buildings, and they laid waste almost the entire land with the exception of the region
known as the Tetrapolis.1 This area they spared because their ancestors had once dwelt there and had gone
forth from it as their base on the occasion when they had defeated Eurystheus; for they
considered it only fair that the benefactors of their ancestors should in turn receive from
their descendants the corresponding benefactions.2
[2]
As for the Athenians, they could not venture to meet them in a
pitched battle, and being confined as they were within the walls, found themselves involved in
an emergency caused by a plague; for since a vast multitude of people of every description had
streamed together into the city, there was good reason for their falling victim to diseases as
they did, because of the cramped quarters, breathing air which had become polluted.3
[3]
Consequently, since they were unable to expel the enemy from
their territory, they again dispatched many ships against the Peloponnesus, appointing Pericles general. He ravaged a large part of the
territory bordering on the sea, plundered some cities, and brought it about that the
Lacedaemonians withdrew from Attica.
[4]
After this the Athenians, now that the trees of their countryside had
been cut down and the plague was carrying off great numbers, were plunged into despondency and
became angry with Pericles, considering him to have been responsible for their being at war.
Consequently they removed him from the generalship, and on the strength of some petty grounds
for accusation they imposed a fine upon him of eighty talents.4
[5]
After this they dispatched embassies to the Lacedaemonians and
asked that the war be brought to an end; but when not a man paid any attention to them, they
were forced to elect Pericles general again.These, then, were
the events of this year.
1 "Four-city." This was the north-eastern part of Attica containing the four demes of Marathon, Oenoe, Probalinthus, and Tricorythus, forming an administrative unit.
2 The Athenians had been the only people of Greece to offer a home to the Heracleidae, in Tricorythus of the Tetrapolis; cp. Book 4.57.
3 The detailed description of this plague, whose symptoms resemble more those of typhus than of any other disease, is in Thuc. 2.47 ff
4 Thuc. 2.65.3 mentions only "a fine"; Plut. Per. 35 states that estimates of the fine varied from fifteen to fifty talents; according to Plato (Plat. Gorg. 516a) the charge was embezzlement. The scholia on Aristoph. Cl. 859, explain that Pericles entered in his accounts an expenditure εἰς τὰ δέοντα ("for necessary purposes"), which the Lacedaemonians interpreted as being for bribes and accordingly punished some of their leading men. Also mentioned is the charge that the gold on Athena's statue was not of the weight charged; but Pheidias removed and weighed it, disproving the allegation.
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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