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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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After this the Athenians dispatched to Argos by sea a thousand picked hoplites and two hundred cavalry, under the
command of Laches and Nicostratus; and Alcibiades also accompanied them, although in a private
capacity, because of the friendly relations he enjoyed with the Eleians and Mantineians; and
when they were all gathered in council, they decided to pay no attention to the truce but to
set about making war.
[2]
Consequently each general urged on his
own troops to the conflict, and when they all responded eagerly, they pitched camp outside the
city. Now they agreed that they should march first of all against Orchomenus in Arcadia; and so, advancing
into Arcadia, they settled down to the siege of the
city and made daily assaults upon its walls.
[3]
And after they
had taken the city, they encamped near Tegea, having
decided to besiege it also. But when the Tegeatans called upon the Lacedaemonians for immediate
aid, the Spartans gathered all their own soldiers and those of their allies and moved on
Mantineia, believing that, once Mantineia was attacked in the war, the enemy would raise the
siege of Tegea.1
[4]
The Mantineians gathered their allies, and marching forth
themselves en masse, formed their lines opposite the Lacedaemonians. A sharp
battle followed, and the picked troops of the Argives, one thousand in number, who had received
excellent training in warfare, were the first to put to flight their opponents and made great
slaughter of them in their pursuit.
[5]
But the Lacedaemonians,
after putting to flight the other parts of the army and slaying many, wheeled about to oppose
the Argives and by their superior numbers surrounded them, hoping to destroy them to a man.
[6]
Now although the picked troops of the Argives, though in
numbers far inferior, were superior in feats of courage, the king of the Lacedaemonians led the
fight and held out firmly against the perils he encountered; and he would have slain all the
Argives—for he was resolved to fulfil the promises he had made to his fellow citizens
and wipe out, by a great deed, his former ill repute—but he was not allowed to
consummate that purpose. For Pharax the Spartan, who was one of the advisers of Agis and
enjoyed the highest reputation in Sparta, directed
him to leave a way of escape for the picked men and not, by hazarding the issue against men who
had given up all hope of life, to learn what valour is when abandoned by Fortune.
[7]
So the king was compelled, in obedience to the command recently given
him,2 to leave a way of escape even
as Pharax advised. So the Thousand, having been allowed to pass through in the manner
described, made their way to safety, and the Lacedaemonians, having won the victory in a great
battle, erected a trophy and returned home.
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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