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Lysander the Spartan, after he had introduced governments in all the cities under the Lacedaemonians in accordance with the will of the ephors, establishing a rule of ten men in some and oligarchies in others, was the cynosure of Sparta. For by bringing the Peloponnesian War to an end he had bestowed upon his native land the supreme power, acknowledged by all, both on land and on sea. [2] Consequently, having become filled with pride on this account, he conceived the idea of putting an end to the kingship of the Heracleidae1 and making every Spartan eligible to election as king; for he hoped that the kingship would very soon come to him because of his achievements, which were very great and glorious. [3] Knowing that the Lacedaemonians gave very great heed to the responses of oracles, he attempted to bribe the prophetess in Delphi, since he believed that, if he should receive an oracular response favourable to the designs he entertained, he should easily carry his project to a successful end. [4] But when he could not win over the attendants of the oracle, despite the large sum he promised them, he opened negotiations on the same matter with the priestesses of the oracle of Dodone, through a certain Pherecrates, who was a native of Apollonia and intimate with the attendants of the shrine. [5]

Meeting with no success, he made a journey to Cyrene, offering as his reason payment of vows to Ammon,2 but actually for the purpose of bribing the oracle; and he took with him a great sum of money with which he hoped to win over the attendants of the shrine. [6] And in fact Libys, the king of those regions, was a guest-friend of his father, and it so happened that Lysander's brother had been named Libys by reason of the friendship with the king. [7] With the king's help, then, and the money he brought, he hoped to win them, but not only did he fail of his design, but the overseers of the oracle sent ambassadors to lay charges against Lysander for his effort to bribe the oracle. When Lysander arrived at Lacedaemon, a trial was proposed, but he presented a persuasive defence of his conduct. [8] Now at that time the Lacedaemonians knew nothing of Lysander's purpose to abolish the kings in line of descent from Heracles; but some time later, after his death, when some documents were being searched for in his house, they found a speech, composed at great expense,3 which he had prepared to deliver to the people, to persuade them that the kings should be elected from all the citizens.

1 The two lines of Spartan kings claimed to be "Descendants of Heracles."

2 Zeus-Ammon, whose shrine was in the Oasis of Siwah.

3 Or more likely, "composed with great care".

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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