Diodorus Siculus, Library

Contents of the Fourteenth Book of Diodorus

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LXXXIII. When the Lacedaemonians saw that the greatest cities of Greece were uniting against them, they voted to summon Agesilaus and his army from Asia. In the meantime they gathered from their own levy and their allies twenty-three thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry and advanced to meet the enemy. [2] The battle took place along the river Nemea,¹ lasting until nightfall, and parts of both armies had the advantage, but of the Lacedaemonians and their allies eleven hundred men fell, while of the Boeotians and their allies about twenty-eight hundred.

[3] After Agesilaus had conveyed his army across from Asia to Europe, at first he was opposed by certain Thracians² with a large force; these he defeated in battle, slaying the larger number of the barbarians. Then he made his way through Macedonia, passing through the same country as Xerxes did when he made his campaign against the Greeks. [4] When Agesilaus had traversed Macedonia and Thessaly and made his way through the pass of Thermopylae, he continued. . . .³

Conon the Athenian and Pharnabazus were in command of the King's fleet⁴ and were tarrying in Loryma of the Chersonesus⁵ with more than ninety triremes. [5] When they learned that the enemy's naval forces were at Cnidus, they made preparations for battle. Peisander, the Lacedaemonian admiral, set out from Cnidus with eighty-five triremes and put in at Physcus of the Chersonesus. [6] On sailing from there he fell in with the King's fleet, and engaging the leading ships, he won the advantage over them; but when the Persians⁶ came to give aid with their triremes in close formation, all his allies fled to the land. But Peisander turned his own ship against them, believing ignoble flight to be disgraceful and unworthy of Sparta. [7] After fighting brilliantly and slaying many of the enemy, in the end he was overcome, battling in a manner worthy of his native land. Conon pursued the Lacedaemonians as far as the land and captured fifty of their triremes. As for the crews, most of them leaped overboard and escaped by land, but about five hundred were captured. The rest of the triremes found safety at Cnidus.

¹ The river formed the boundary between Sicyonia and Corinthia (Strab. 8.6.25).

² The Trallians (Plut. Agesilaus 16.1).

³ The Greek is defective; "through Phocis," "at top speed," and other suggestions have been made.

⁴ Cp. chap. 81.4 f.

⁵ At the south-west tip of Asia Minor.

⁶ The part of the fleet under the command of Pharnabazus (Xen. Hell. 4.3.11).

This text is based on the following book(s):
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.
OCLC: 24758311
ISBN: 0674994132, 0674994221, 0674994396, 0674994280, 0674994647

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