Polybius, Histories
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Book 7 - Chapter 14b

1
<head lang="la">IV. Res Siciliae</head><w lemma="%2A%29ekpe%2Fmpousi">Ἐκπέμπουσι</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="%2Akrhtw%3Dn">Κρητῶν</w> <w lemma="tinas">τινας</w> <w lemma="w%28s">ὡς</w> <w lemma="e%29pi%5C">ἐπὶ</w> <w lemma="lh%7Cstei%2Fan">λῃστείαν</w>, <w lemma="do%2Fntes">δόντες</w> <w lemma="e%29pistolh%5Cn">ἐπιστολὴν</w> <w lemma="dieskeuasme%2Fnhn">διεσκευασμένην</w>. [<foreign lang="la">Suidas v.</foreign><w lemma="dieskeuasme%2Fnhn">διεσκευασμένην</w>; <foreign lang="la">v. Liv. XXIV, 31, 6</foreign>]<w lemma=""></w>.
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Walbank Commentary

Overview
7.14.0 - 7.14.0
<p rend="Plain Text">A Syracusan incident (spring 213)</p> <p rend="Plain Text"> After Hieronymus' murder in Leontini (6 n.) and the temporary advantage of the regicides, popular opinion had swung over and <milestone unit="page" n="61">[61]</milestone> Hippocrates and Epicydes had been elected to the Council at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syracuse&groupId=994&placeId=1753">Syracuse</a>. Hippocrates was sent to Leontini, where Epicydes then joined him; the town declared against the Romans who, after a clash, sacked it in spring 213. When the Syracusan army marched out to Leontini, Hippocrates and Epicydes, who had escaped the sack, approached them and won their support (Livy, xxiv. 21–31). The present fragment concerns a forged letter by which Hippocrates sought to discredit the Syracusan authorities as pro-Roman; cf. Livy, xxiv. 31. 6, 'fraudem quoque Hippocrates addit inclinatis ad omnem suspicionem animis et Cretensium quibusdam ad itinera insidenda missis uelut interceptas litteras, quas ipse composuerat, recitat: praetores Syracusani consuli Marcello.' If there was only one set of res Siciliae in vii (cf. above, pp. 2–3 and 5), the present fragment will follow viii. 3 a and viii. 1–2 and precede viii. 3. </p>
7.14.0 - 7.14.0
<p rend="Plain Text">The Massyli</p> <p rend="Plain Text">See above, p. 3. They will have been mentioned under the Spanish events of 215 or 214.</p>
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<p rend="Plain Text">Oricus</p> <p rend="Plain Text"> In August 214 (cf. Holleaux, 189 n. 1) Philip sailed into the Adriatic to take Oricus in the Bay of Aulon; he was operating in conjunction with Hannibal, who simultaneously attacked Tarentum (Livy, xxiv. 20. 9 f., 40; Badian, BSR, 1952, 89–90). Leaving a garrison at Oricus, he then ascended the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Aous&groupId=338&placeId=656">Aous</a> to besiege <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Apollonia&groupId=1066&placeId=1873">Apollonia</a>. Laevinus, on the appeal of the Illyrians, crossed the straits of Otranto, recovered Oricus and blockaded the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Aous&groupId=338&placeId=656">Aous</a> mouth; Philip was compelled to burn his fleet and retire overland to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> (Livy, xxiv. 40: details unreliable (see the reconstruction in Walbank, Philip, 75–6); other sources, Zon. ix. 4. 4; Plut. Arat. 51. 1). The present fragment belongs to this context. Oricus (mod. Palaeocastro) lies on a hill west of the sandbank of Pasha Liman, at the south end of the bay of Valona, and sheltered to the north-west by the Acroceraunian mountains: originally an island (Pliny, Nat. hist. ii. 204), it was later a peninsula. See Heuzey, Les Oprations militaires de Jules Csar (Paris, 1886), 20–24, with Plan ii and sketch B; Veith, Der Feldzug von Dyrrachium zwischen Caesar und Pompejus (Vienna, 1920), 41 f., 65, 79, 82 f., 200 ff.; Treidler, Epirus im Altertum: Studien zur historischen Topographie (Diss. Leipzig, 1917), 96 f. Tradition made Oricus a foundation of Euboeans returning from Troy (Lucan, iii. 187; Ps.-Scymnus, 441–3) or of the Colchians (Timaeus, FGH 566 F 80; Pliny, Nat. hist. iii. 145). See J. Schmidt, RE, 'Orikos', cols. 1059–62; R. L. Beaumont, JHS, 1936, 164–5. <milestone unit="page" n="62">[62]</milestone> </p>
7.14.0 - 7.18.0
<p rend="Plain Text">Antiochus' capture of Sardes</p> <p rend="Plain Text">This, the culminating action in the crushing of Achaeus' revolt, will have occurred in spring 214 (above, p. 3). P.'s source is unknown; Ullrich, 30–31, argued from the emphasis on Nicomachus in viii. 15. 9 that P. used a Rhodian source (Zeno?) for his account of the campaign against Achaeus. For another possibility see viii. 15–34 n.</p>
Specifics
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<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τῆς ἑκατέρου προαιρέσεως</w>:</emph> cf. 13. 4 n. </p>
7.14.3 - 7.14.3
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τοὺς τοῦ πολέμου νόμους</w>:</emph> cf. ii. 58. 6 n. and iv. 62. 3 n. for P.'s views on the 'laws of war'. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἠστόχει . . . τῆς σφετέρας προαιρέσεως</w>:</emph> 'he acted contrary to his own purposes' (Schweighaeuser, Paton, Mauersberger) or 'he had no regard for his own reputation' (Strachan-Davidson, LSJ): for <w lang="el-GR">ἀστοχεῖν</w> in the first sense cf. xvi. 26. 6, <w lang="el-GR">τοῦ τῆς πατρίδος συμφέ?ροντος</w>; in the second sense cf. xxix. 24. 1, <w lang="el-GR">μὴ δόξωσι Ῥωμαίων ἀστοχεῖν</w>; for <w lang="el-GR">προαίρεσις</w> in the first sense cf. iii. 111. 1 and Strachan-Davidson, 9; in the second sense cf. 13. 4 n. and Strachan-Davidson, 11. </p>
7.14.4 - 7.14.4
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Ἀράτῳ . . . καθηγεμόνι χρησάμενος περὶ τῶν ὅλων</w>:</emph> 'employing Aratus as his general adviser': there are no grounds for thinking that Aratus played any special role in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a> or even visited it (so van Effenterre, passim), cf. iv. 53. 5 n. P. is speaking very generally. </p>

Commentary