Delphi Complete Works of Cornelius Nepos

by Cornelius Nepos

  -is made prisoner by Tiribazus at Sardis. Ib.

  393 Iphicrates defeats the Spartans at Corinth. Iph. 2.

  390. Thrasybulus killed at Aspendus. Thras 4.

  387. Chabrias subdues Cyprus. Chab. 2.

  385. Datames made governor of Cilicia by Artaxerxes. Dat. 1.

  382. Phoebidas seizes on the citadel of Thebes. Pelop. 1.

  378. The Theban exiles retake it. Pelop. 3.

  377. Agesilaus invades Boeotia; is withstood by Chabrias. Chab. 1.

  Chabrias assists Acoris king of Egypt. Chab. 3.

  Iphicrates goes to the assistance of Artaxerxes. Iph. 2.

  376. Timotheus defeats the Lacedaemonians at Leucate. Tim. 2.

  374. Iphicrates returns to Athens. Iph. 2.

  371. Epaminondas defeats the Spartans at Leuctra. Epam. 8

  370. Iphicrates protects Eurydice of Macedonia. Iph. 3.

  369. Epaminoudas invades Laconia, advances on Sparta, and restores Messene. Epam. 7. 8.

  and Pelopidas support the Arcadians in their struggle with the Spartans. Pelop. 4.

  Iphicrates assists the Lacedaemonians. Iph. 2.

  388. Pelopidas imprisoned by Alexander of Pherae. Pelop. 5.

  — rescued by Epaminondas. Ib.

  386. Epaminondas at war in the Peloponnesus. Epam. 7.

  334. Pelopidas killed in a battle with Alexander of Pherae. Pelop. 5.

  Timotheus at war with the Olynthians. Tim. 1.

  363. Epaminoudas falls victorious at Mantinea. Epam. 9.

  332. Death of Agesilaus. Ages. 8.

  Datames revolts from Artaxerxes. Dat.

  358. Death of Chabrias. Chab. 4.

  Dion flees from Dionysius, and prepares to go to war with him. Dion. 4.

  357. — takes possession of Syracuse. Dion. 5.

  356. The Athenians, under Chares, Iphicrates, and Timotheus, at war with their allies. Tim. 3.

  - Timotheus fined by the Athenians. Tim. 3.

  355. Dion assassinated at Syracuse. Dion 9; Timol. 2.

  345. Expedition of Timoleon to Syracuse; he gives liberty to the Syracusans. Ib.

  344. Timoleon expels Dionysius, who goes to Corinth. Ib.

  342. Timoleon re-establishes a republican form of government at Syracuse; secures peace to all Sicily. Ib.

  337. dies. Timol. 4.

  322. Phocion procures for Athens the protection of Antipater. Phoc. 2.

  321. Eumenes defeats Craterus and Neoptolemus. Eum. 3, 4.

  -besieged by Antigonus at Nora. Eum. 5.

  318. Nicanor, at the command of Cassander, takes possession of the Piraeeus. Phoc. 2.

  Death of Phocion. Phoc. 4.

  317. Eumenes commences hostilities against Antigonus. Eum. 7.

  316. taken and put to death by Antigonus. Eum. 10-12.

  301. Antigonus killed at Ipsus. De Reg. 3.

  272. Pyrrhus killed at Argos. De Reg. 2.

  248. Hamilcar made commander of the Punic fleet. Hamil. 1.

  238. sent as commander-in-chief into Spain. Hamil. 3; Hann. 2.

  229. ‘s death. Ham. 3.

  221. Hannibal becomes commander-in-chief in Spain. Hamil. 3; Hann. 3.

  214. Cato military tribune. Cat. 1.

  205. — quaestor to Publius Scipio. 76.

  198. — praetor, with Sardinia for his province. Cat. 1.

  195. — made consul with Lucius Valerius Flaccus. Cat. 1, 2.

  194. — obtains a triumph for his successes in Spain. Cat. 2.

  184. — Censor with L. Flaccus. Cat. 2.

  149. — dies at the age of 85. Cat. 2.

  109. Birth of Pomponius Atticus.

  88. Publius Sulpicius, tribune of the people, killed by Sulla. Att. 2,

  87. Atticus retires to Athens. Ib.

  84. Sulla visits Athens in his return from Asia. Att. 4.

  65. Atticus returns to Rome. Ib.

  32. Death of Atticus. Att 22.

  ENDNOTES

  1. Plerosque.] For plurimos. So, a little below, pleraque sunt decora, for plurima.

  2. Hoc genus scriptures.] These brief memoirs of eminent men, interspersed with allusions to national habits and peculiarities.

  3. Tibiis cantasse.] The plural, flutes, is used, because the Greeks, and the Romans, who adopted the practice from them, played on different kinds of flutes or pipes, equal and unequal, right and left-handed, and often on two at once. See Colman’s preface to his translation of Terence; Smith’s Classical Dict. art. Tibia; Life of Epaminondas, c. 2.

  4. Sororem germanam.] A half-sister by the mother’s side was called soror uterina. Her name was Elpinice. See the Life of Cimon.

  5. Amatores.] See the Life of Alcibiades, c. 2. Apud Graecos, says Cic. de Rep. fragm. lib. iv., opprobrio fuit adolescentibus, si amatores non haberent. See Maxiinus Tyrius, Dissert, viii. xi.; Potter’s Antiq. of Greece, b. iv. c. 9.

  6. Nulla vidua quae non ad scenam eat mercede conducta.] This is not said with reference to that period in the history of Sparta when it adhered to the laws of Lycurgus, under which it was not allowed to witness either comedy or tragedy, as Plutarch in his Instituta Laconica shows, but to the time when the ancient discipline and austerity were trodden under foot, and the state sunk into luxury and effeminacy; a condition of things which took place under Leonidas and Agis, and chiefly, indeed, through the licentiousness of the women, if we may credit what Plutarch says in his life of Agis. From the earliest times, however, according to Aristotle, Polit. ii. 9, the Spartan women were inclined to live very intemperately and luxuriously, and Lycurgus endeavoured to subject them to laws, but was obliged to desist, through the opposition which they made. Hence Plato, also, de Legg. lib. ii., alludes to the a!nesij, laxity, of the Spartan women. Buchner. But with all such explanations the passage is still difficult and unsatisfactory. Why is a widow particularly specified? No passage in any ancient author has been found to support this observation of Nepos, if it be his. What Aristotle says in disparagement of the Lacedaemonian women is pretty well refuted, as Van Staveren observes, by Plutarch in his life of Lycurgus, c. 14. Besides, there were no female actors among the Greeks. For ad scenam Freinshemius (apud Boecler, ad h. 1.) proposes to read ad coenam, which Gesner approves; Heusinger conjectures ad lenam. The conjecture of Withof, ad encaenia, compared with Hor. A. P. 232, Festis matrona moveri jussa diebus, might appear in some degree plausible, were not e0gkai/nia a word resting on scarcely any other authority than that of the Septuagint and ecclesiastical writers; for though it occurs in Quintilian, vii. 2, the passage is scarcely intelligible, and the reading has generally been thought unsound. Goerenz, ad Cic. de Fin. ii. 20, would read quae non ad coenam, eat mercede condictam, i.e. to a supper or banquet furnished by a general contribution of the guests. But none of these critics cite any authority in support of their emendations. As to the last, it would be casting no dishonour upon a noble widow to say that she went to a coena condicta, for such coena might be among those of her own class. Nor is the applicability of mercede in such a phrase quite certain.

  7. In scenam prodire et populo esse spectaculo, &c ] Actors are here confounded with the rhapsodists, or reciters of poetry. Demosthenes, de Corona, upbraids Aeschines as being an actor. Rinckii Prolegom. in Aem. Prob. p. xlii.

  8. This is not true of the Spartan women, for they, who boasted that they alone were the mothers of men, led a life of less restraint. Besides, by the laws of Lycurgus, the young women took part in the public exercises. Rinck. Prolegom. ibid.

  9. Modestia.] “Good conduct,” or “prudence,” or “knowledge how to act,” seems to be the true sense of the word. “Itaque, ut eandem [eu)taci/an] nos modestiam appellemus, sic definitur a Stoicis, ut modestia sit scientia earum rerum, quae agentur aut dicentur, suo loco collocandarum: scientia opportunitatis idoneorum ad agendum temporum. Sed potest esse eadem prudentiae definitio.” Cic. de Off. i. 40.

  10. The Thracian Chersonese. But it is to be observed that the author, in this biography, confounds Miltiades, the son of Cimon,
with Miltiades the elder, the son of Cypselus. It was the latter who settled the colony in the Thracian Chersonese, and left the sovereignty of it at his death to Stesagoras, the son of his half-brother Cimon, and brother to Miltiades the younger, who became governor of it on the death of Stesagoras, being sent out by Pisistratus for that purpose.

  11. Ex his delecti Delphos deliberatum missi sunt, oui consulerent Apollinem, &c.] Either deliberatum, or qui consulerent Apollinem, might be emitted as superfluous. Bos retains both in his text, but suspects the latter.

  12. Cum delecta manu.] A body independent of those who were going to settle in the colony.

  13. Loca castellis idonea communiit.] A late editor absurdly takes castellis for a dative. Tacit. Ann. iii. 74: Castella et munitiones idoneis locis imponens.

  14. Dum ipse abesset.] He fixed, according to Herodotus, a term of sixty days for his absence, on the expiration of which the guardians of the bridge might depart.

  15. Principes.] The tyrants or sovereigns of the Greek cities, who held their power under the protection of Darius.

  16. Se oppressa.] If he should be crushed, and the Persian empire consequently overthrown, they would be left without a protector.

  17. Civibus suis poenas daturos.] They would be called to account for having made themselves tyrants.

  18. The Ionians had rebelled against Persia, to which they had been subject, and, with some Athenians and Eretrians, had burned Sardis. This is alleged among the frivolous reasons for the Persian war. See Herod, v. 101-105; Perizon. ad Aelian. V. H. xii. 53; Fabric. ad Oros. ii. 8; and Plut. Vit. Aristid. Van Slaver en.

  19. Omnes ejus gentis cives.] That is, all the people of Eretria in Euboea. They were carried to Susa, and treated kindly by Darius, See Herod, vi. 119.

  20. 9Hmerodro&moi, “day couriers,” who could run a great distance in a day. Ingens die uno cursu emetientes spatium. Liv. xxxi. 24.

  21. The text is here in an unsatisfactory state, as all the critics remark, but I have given what is evidently the sense of the passage.

  22. Poiki/lh Stoa&, “the painted portico,” as being adorned with pictures on subjects from Athenian history.

  23. Ad officium redire.] To submit again to the power of the Athenians.

  24. Urbem.] The chief town of the island, bearing the same nama with it.

  25. See on Sall. Jug. c 37. The testudines were similar in construction and use to the vineae.

  26. Deterrerentur.] They feared the vengeance of the Persians if they submitted to Miltiades.

  27. Acharnanam civem.] This is the reading of most, if not all, of the MSS., and Bos retains it. “Aldus,” says Bos, “was the first, I think, to change Acharnanam into Halicarnassiam, from having read in Plutarch that Neanthes said Halicarnassus in Caria was the birth-place of Themistocles’s mother. For my part, I am unwilling to give up the old reading, especially as there is so much uncertainty on the point among writers.” Some make Themistocles the son of a Thracian woman, and called her Abrotonus, some of a Carian, and called her Euterpe. See Plutarch. Themist, init. and Athenseus, xiii. 5. Acharnae was a borough of Attica. Plutarch, however, asserts that Themistocles was not of pure Attic blood on the mother’s side. Nor is there any thing either in him or Athenaeus to support the reading Acharnanam.

  28. Bello Corcyraeo.] Rather Aeginetico, in the war with Aegina, as Lambinus and other commentators have observed; for that war happened about the time to which allusion is here made. See Herod. vii. 144, and Plutarch. Them. c. 4. But of a war with Corcyra neither Herodotus nor Thucydides makes any mention; a dispute between the Corcyreeans and Corinthians is noticed by Plutarch, Them. c. 24, which Themistocles, as arbiter, is said to have settled. The passage is therefore corrupt, perhaps from an error of Aemilius Probus, or perhaps Nepos himself made a mistake as to the name of the war. Fischer.

  29. Largitione.] The money was divided, if we listen to Herodotus, vi. 46, 47; vii. 144, among the whole people, ten drachmae to every person of full-grown age. Bos. But the division of it was the act of the people themselves, though it might be promoted by the influence of some of the leading men.

  30. Adeo angusto mari.] It was in the strait between the island of Salamis and the temple of Hercules, on the coast of Attica. Bos.

  31. Interim.] The MSS. and editions are divided between interim and iterum. Bos prefers the former; Van Staveren the latter.

  32. Pari modo.] Under the same circumstances as at Marathon a greater force being defeated by a smaller.

  33. Triplex Piraeei portus.] It is acutely shown by Bos that the Piraeeus was called triple from its containing three stations or basins, Cantharos, Aphrodision, and Zea.

  34. By public gods, deos publicos, are meant the deities worshipped throughout all the states of Greece, as Jupiter, Mercury, &c.; by national gods, patrios, such as were peculiar to Attica itself.

  35. Hospitium.] A mutual agreement to receive one another as guests. But according to Thucydides, i. 136, there was no such relation existing between them, for he speaks of Admetus as

  36. Multo commodius.] This seems impossible. He might have better matter to produce, but surely not better language.

  37. Opsonium.] The word signifies all that was eaten with bread; all kinds of food besides bread.

  38. Prope oppidum.] That is, near the city of Athens, where we learn from Pausanias that the tomb of Themistocles was to be seen in his time, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus. Bos.

  39. Obtrectârunt inter se.] Diepoliteu&santo: they supported opposite parties in the state. So in the Life of Epaminondas, c. 5, it is said that he had Meneclides for an obtrectator. Such obtrectationes are called by Vell. Pat. ii. 43, civiles contentiones, and by Val. Max. iii. 8, acerrimi studii in administratione Reipublicae dissidia. Gebhard. Plutarch says, that according to some there were dissensions between Aristides and Themistocles from their earliest years, so that in all their communications, whether on graver or lighter topics, the one always opposed the other. Buchner.

  40. Abstinente.] That is, abstaining from the property of others; moderation; disinterestedness.

  41. Priusquam poenâ liberaretur.] Before he was freed from the punishment (of exile).

  42. At the commencement of this chapter I have departed from Bos’s text, and followed that of Freund and others, who make it begin with Quos quo facilius repellerent, &c.

  43. Plurima miscere.] To mingle, or throw into confusion, very many things.

  44. Book i. c. 128.

  45. Cum scytala.] The scytala was a staff, round which a slip of parchment being rolled obliquely, the orders of the Ephori were written on it longitudinally, so that, when unrolled, they could not be read until the parchment was again rolled round a staff of the same thickness, which the general had with him.

  46. More illorum. ] That is, with extreme brevity.

  47. Regi.] Pausanias was not actually a king, but guardian to the young prince Pleistarchus, the son of Leonidas. Thucyd. i. 132.

  48. Argilius.] A native of Argilus, a town of Thrace on the Strymonic Gulf.

  49. Amore venereo.] See the note on amatores in the preface.

  50. Vincula epistolae laxavit.] Letters were tied round with a string, which was sealed, probably, over the knot. The Argilian, according to Nepos, contrived to take off the string without breaking the seal, so that he might readily replace it.

  51. Quae Chalcioecos vocatur.] Whether the quae refers to aedem of Minervae, the critics are not agreed. Thucydides, i. 134, to i9eron th~j Xalkioi/kou, makes it apparent that it should be referred to Minerva. But Bos and Bremi concur in referring it to aedes.

  52. Neque legibus Atheniensibus emitti poterat.] Yet by Justin, ii. 15, Val. Maximus, v. 3 ext. 3, and v. 4 ext. 2, Seneca, Controvers. 24, and others, it has been said that Cimon’s submission to go to prison was voluntary. Bos collects ample testimony to the contrary.

  53. See note on the preface.

  54. Hospitio.] See note on Themistocles, c. 8. Hospitium, might exist between two states, or between a state an
d a private individual, as well as between two individuals.

  55. Offensum fortuna.] That is, casu obvium, fortuito oblatum, “thrown in his way by chance,” as Heusinger explains it in his note on the passage. Fischer. This explanation is also approved by Boeclerus and Freinshemius. Lambinus erroneously interpreted it cui fortuna esset iniqua, and several others have trodden in his steps.

  56. Pervertere.] “Corrupt” is evidently the sense of pervertere in this passage, not “destroy,” as some would make it. Lysander first endeavoured to corrupt the fidelity of the Thasians to the Athenians, and afterwards, when he found his endeavours unsuccessful, proceeded to use treachery and cruelty towards them.

  57. The account of Lysander’s treachery to the Thasians is wanting in the manuscripts, but may be supplied from Polyaenus, i. 45. Those of the Thasians who had the greatest reason to fear Lysander, had fled to a temple of Hercules, which was held in the greatest veneration. At this temple Lysander called them all together to hear him address them, when he made them a speech full of the fairest promises of mercy and clemency. He said that he would think nothing of what was past; that no one had cause for fear or concealment; that they might all appear before him with full confidence in his good feelings towards them; and that he called Hercules, in whose temple they were, to witness that he spoke only what he meant. Having thus drawn them forth from their sanctuary, he, a few days after, when they were free from apprehension, fell upon them and put them to death. “He was guilty of a similar instance of perfidy at Miletus,” says Bos, “as is also related by Polyaenus, and by Plutarch.”

  58. Quàm verè de eo foret judicatum.] That is, how little he deserved acquittal.

  59. Librum graveni multis verbis.] “A heavy letter in many words.”

  60. Dives; quum tempus posceret, &c.] This is Bos’s reading. Many editions have Idem, quum tempus, &c.

  61. Non minus in vitâ quàm victu.] Bos and Boeder distinguish vita and victus in this manner; vita, they say, means a man’s mode of living in public and among other men; victus his way of life at home, and diet at his own table. Cicero de Legg. iii. 14: Nobilium vita victuque mutato.

  62. Privignus.] If we believe Diodorus Siculus, lib. xii, and Suidas, Alcibiades was the son of Pericles’s sister. Hence Pericles is called his uncle by Val. Max, iii. 1, and Aul. Gell. xv. 17. Pericles appears, however, to have been the step-father of Alcibiades’s wife, as Magius observes; for Alcibiades married Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus, whose wife Pericles afterwards espoused. Bos.