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But first it is only right, so we think, to record the punishment which was visited by the gods upon those who had committed the outrage on the oracle. For, speaking generally, it was not merely the perpetrators of the sacrilege but all persons who had the slightest connection with the sacrilege that were hounded by the inexorable retribution sent of Heaven. [2] In fact the man who first schemed for the seizure of the shrine, Philomelus, in a crisis of the war hurled himself over a cliff,1 while his brother Onomarchus, after taking over the command of his people, now become desperate, was cut to pieces in a battle in Thessaly, along with the Phocians and mercenaries of his command, and crucified.2 [3] The third in succession and the one who coined into money most of the dedications, Phayllus,3 fell ill of a lingering disease and so was unable even to secure a quick release from his punishment. And the last of all, Phalaecus, who had gathered the remnants of the pillaged property, passed his life for a considerable length of time wandering about in great fear and danger, though it was not Heaven's intent that he should be happier than those who participated with him in the sacrilege, but that by being tortured longer and by becoming known to many for his misfortunes, his sad fate might become notorious. [4] For when he had taken flight with his mercenaries following the agreement,4 he first sojourned in the Peloponnese, supporting his men on the last remnants of the pillaging, but later he hired in Corinth some large freighters and with four light vessels prepared for the voyage to Italy and Sicily, thinking that in these regions he would either seize some city or obtain service for pay, for a war was in progress, as it chanced, between the Lucanians and the Tarentines. To his fellow passengers he said that he was making the voyage because he had been summoned by the people of Italy and Sicily.

1 See chap. 31.

2 See chap. 35.

3 See chap. 38.

4 See chap. 59.3, which hardly justifies the phrase ἐκ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας.

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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