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1

When Theophrastus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Marcus Valerius and Aulus Cornelius, and the one hundred and tenth Olympiad was celebrated, in which Anticles the Athenian won the foot-race.2 [2] In this year, seeing that Philip was besieging Byzantium, the Athenians voted that he had broken his treaty with them and promptly dispatched a formidable fleet to aid that city. Besides them, the Chians, Coans, Rhodians, and some others of the Greeks sent reinforcements also. [3] Philip was frightened by this joint action, broke off the siege of the two cities, and made a treaty of peace with the Athenians and the other Greeks who opposed him.3 [4]

In the west, the Carthaginians prepared great stores of war materials and transported their forces to Sicily.4 They had all told, including the forces previously on the island, more than seventy thousand infantry; cavalry, war-chariots, and extra teams of horses amounting to not less than ten thousand; two hundred battleships; and more than a thousand freighters carrying the horses, weapons, food and everything else. [5] Timoleon was not daunted, however, although he learned the size of the hostile force while he himself was reduced to a handful of soldiers. He was still at war with Hicetas, but came to terms with him and took over his troops, thus materially increasing his own army.5

1 340/39 B.C.

2 Theophrastus was archon at Athens from July 340 to June 339 B.C. The Olympic Games were celebrated in mid-summer of 340 B.C. Broughton (1.132) lists the consuls of 343 B.C. as M. Valerius Corvus and A. Cornelius Cossus Arvina.

3 This account of Diodorus differs from the presumably correct one given elsewhere, going back over Philochorus to Theopompus (in Didymus: Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, no. 115, F 292). Byzantium was assisted by Chios, Cos, and Rhodes, her old allies in the Social War, as well as by the Persians. The Athenian fleet under Chares arrived only to ensure the safe passage of the grain fleet from the Black Sea. Philip's capture of this fleet was a major factor in Athens' decision to abrogate the peace treaty; the result was war, not peace. Cp. Dem. 18.87-94; Plut. Phocion 14.

4 Continued from chap. 73. Plut. Timoleon 25.1 gives the same figures, but fails to mention the cavalry and the chariots.

5 Plutarch does not mention the support furnished Timoleon by Hicetas at this time.

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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  • Cross-references to this page (3):
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CONSTANTINO´POLIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CRIMISUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PERINTHUS
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (3):
    • Demosthenes, On the Crown, 87
    • Plutarch, Phocion, 14
    • Plutarch, Timoleon, 25.1
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