Diodorus Siculus, Library

Contents of the Sixteenth Book of Diodorus

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XCIV. Pausanias, nevertheless, nursed his wrath implacably,¹ and yearned to avenge himself, not only on the one who had done him wrong, but also on the one who failed to avenge him. In this design he was encouraged especially by the sophist Hermocrates.² He was his pupil, and when he asked in the course of his instruction how one might become most famous, the sophist replied that it would be by killing the one who had accomplished most, for just as long as he was remembered, so long his slayer would be remembered also. [2] Pausanias connected this saying with his private resentment, and admitting no delay in his plans because of his grievance he determined to act under cover of the festival in the following manner. [3] He posted horses at the gates of the city and came to the entrance of the theatre carrying a Celtic dagger under his cloak. When Philip directed his attending friends to precede him into the theatre, while the guards kept their distance, he saw that the king was left alone, rushed at him, pierced him through his ribs, and stretched him out dead³ ; then ran for the gates and the horses which he had prepared for his flight. [4] Immediately one group of the bodyguards hurried to the body of the king while the rest poured out in pursuit of the assassin; among these last were Leonnatus and Perdiccas and Attalus.⁴ Having a good start, Pausanias would have mounted his horse before they could catch him had he not caught his boot in a vine and fallen. As he was scrambling to his feet, Perdiccas and the rest came up with him and killed him with their javelins.

¹ These events cannot be dated exactly, but they must have occurred some years before the assassination of Philip, perhaps as early as 344 B.C. (Berve, Alexanderreich, 2, p. 308). Pausanias waited a long time for his revenge, and it is curious that he chose the occasion most advantageous for Alexander.

² No sophist Hermocrates is otherwise known at this time, but it may be possible to identify this man with the grammarian of the same name who is best known to fame as the teacher of Callimachus. For the latter cp. F. Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, 2 (1892), 668; O. Stählin, W. Schmid, W. von Christs Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur (6), 2.1 (1920), 126; Funaioli, Real-Encyclopädie, 8 (1913), 887 f.

³ The date of Philip's death is discussed by K. J. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte, 3.2 (1923), 59. The news had not reached Athens by the end of the civil year 337/6 B.C.; IG 2(2). 1.240 in the tenth prytany does not know of it. On the other hand, the time must be early in the summer, for Philip was busy with preparations for an invasion of Asia Minor. A possible clue to the date is furnished by the statement of Plut. Alexander 16.2, concerning the battle of the Granicus: this would have taken place in the month Daesius, but as that was unlucky, Alexander ordered the intercalation of a second Artemisius. Since there is some evidence that the intercalary month was the last month of the regnal year, this establishes a certain presumption that Philip died and Alexander came to the throne in Daesius; and this squares well enough with the evidence of the Attic inscription. Since Alexander died in Daesius, the Oxyrhynchus chronologist was correct in crediting him with thirteen years of reign. See below on Book 17.117.5 note.

⁴ This is presumably the son of Andromenes, who like Leonnatus and Perdiccas was a close friend and contemporary of Alexander; probably they were his bodyguards and not Philip's (the term may be used loosely; Attalus was never one of Alexander's seven or eight bodyguards proper in Asia, and Leonnatus not until 332/1, Perdiccas not until 330; Berve, Alexanderreich, 1.27). Pausanias was from Orestis, and so were two of his slayers, while Attalus was Perdiccas's brother-in-law. It is tempting to suppose that they knew of Pausanias's plan and then killed him to silence him. U. Wilcken (SB Ak. Berlin, 1923, 151 ff.) would find in P. Oxy. 1798 evidence that Pausanias was tried and executed, but the text is fragmentary and obscure, and the theory is not, to my mind, supported by Justin 11.2.1.

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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