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Every seat in the theatre was taken when Philip appeared wearing a white cloak, and by his express orders his bodyguard held away from him and followed only at a distance, since he wanted to show publicly that he was protected by the goodwill of all the Greeks, and had no need of a guard of spearmen.1 [2] Such was the pinnacle of success that he had attained, but as the praises and congratulations of all rang in his ears, suddenly without warning the plot against the king was revealed as death struck. [3] We shall set forth the reasons for this in order that our story may be clear.

There was a Macedonian Pausanias who came of a family from the district Orestis.2 He a was bodyguard of the king and was beloved by him because of his beauty. [4] When he saw that the king was becoming enamoured of another Pausanias (a man of the same name as himself), he addressed him with abusive language, accusing him of being a hermaphrodite and prompt to accept the amorous advances of any who wished. [5] Unable to endure such an insult, the other kept silent for the time, but, after confiding to Attalus, one of his friends, what he proposed to do, he brought about his own death voluntarily and in a spectacular fashion. [6] For a few days after this, as Philip was engaged in battle with Pleurias, king of the Illyrians,3 Pausanias stepped in front of him and, receiving on his body all the blows directed at the king, so met his death. [7]

The incident was widely discussed and Attalus, who was a member of the court circle and influential with the king, invited the first Pausanias to dinner and when he had plied him till drunk with unmixed wine, handed his unconscious body over to the muleteers to abuse in drunken licentiousness. [8] So he presently recovered from his drunken stupor and, deeply resenting the outrage to his person, charged Attalus before the king with the outrage. Philip shared his anger at the barbarity of the act but did not wish to punish Attalus at that time because of their relationship, and because Attalus's services were needed urgently. [9] He was the nephew4 of the Cleopatra whom the king had just married as a new wife and he had been selected as a general of the advanced force being sent into Asia, for he was a man valiant in battle. For these reasons, the king tried to mollify the righteous anger of Pausanias at his treatment, giving him substantial presents and advancing him in honour among the bodyguards.

1 He walked between the two Alexanders, his son and his son-in-law (Justin 9.6.3-4), and so between those who had most reason to wish his death.

2 Justin 9.6.4-8. The Orestis was a district in western Macedonia bordering on Illyria.

3 This battle can hardly be identified, in view of the many wars fought by Philip against the Illyrians. The last one mentioned by Diodorus was in chap. 69.7.

4 This is the usually stated relationship. In Book 17.2.3, Attalus is called Cleopatra's brother, but otherwise, with more probability, her uncle.

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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