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Although the loss of the sacred property was ascribed entirely to the Phocians, the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians, who were fighting on the side of the Phocians and received pay out of all proportion to the number of soldiers they sent out, shared in the seizure. [2] This period brought it to pass for the Athenians that they sinned against the divine powers to such an extent that, shortly before the Delphian affair,1 as Iphicrates was tarrying near Corcyra with a naval force and Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse had shipped to Olympia and to Delphi statues cunningly wrought in gold and ivory, Iphicrates, chancing to fall in with the ships that were conveying these statues, seized them and sent word to the Athenian people inquiring what he should do with them; whereat the Athenians instructed him not to raise questions about what concerned the gods but to give his attention to seeing that his soldiers were well fed. [3] Now Iphicrates, obeying the decision of his country, sold as booty the works of art belonging to the gods. The tyrant, filled with rage at the Athenians, wrote them a letter of the following tenor:

"Dionysius to the Senate and Assembly of the Athenians: It is inappropriate to wish you to do well since you are committing sacrilege2 against the gods both on land and on sea, and, having made off with the statues which had been sent by us to be dedicated to the gods, you have turned them into coin and have committed impiety toward the greatest of the gods, Apollo, whose abode is Delphi, and Olympian Zeus." [4]

Such now was the conduct of the Athenians toward the divine powers, and that too though they boasted that Apollo was their tutelary god and progenitor.3 And the Lacedaemonians, though they had consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi and through it come to possess their constitution4 which is admired of all the world, though even now they still interrogate the god on matters of supreme importance,5 had the effrontery to become partners in crime of those who pillaged the sanctuary.

1 Perhaps on the occasion mentioned in Book 15.47.7.

2 An interesting complaint in view of Aelian Var. Hist. 1.20: Διονύσιος (the Elder?) ἐξ ἁπάντων τῶν ἐν Συρακούσαις ἱερῶν ἐσύλησε τὰ χρήματα. For the probable occasion of this letter see Book 15.47.7.

3 Through Ion, son of Apollo and Creusa.

4 See Plut. Lycurgus 5.3, esp. καὶ καταινεῖν ἔφη τὸν θεὸν ἣ πολὺ κρατίστη τῶν ἄλλων ἔσται πολιτειῶν.

5 Cp. Book 14.13.3: τοὺς Λακεδαιμονίους μάλιστα τοῖς μαντείοις προσέχοντας.

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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