CHAPTER I.
That part of Phocis which is in the neighbourhood of Tithorea and Delphi took its name in very ancient times from the Corinthian Phocus, the son of Ornytion. But not many years afterwards all the country now called Phocis got that name, after the Æginetans and Phocus the son of Æacus crossed over there in their ships. Phocis is opposite the Peloponnese and near Bœotia and on the sea, and has ports at Cirrha (near Delphi) and Anticyra: the Epicnemidian Locrians prevent their being on the sea at the Lamiac Gulf, for they dwell in that part of Phocis, as the Scarpheans north of Elatea, and north of Hyampolis and Abæ the people of Opus, whose harbour is Cynus.
The most eminent public transactions of the Phocians were as follows. They took part in the war against Ilium, and fought against the Thessalians, (before the Persians invaded Greece), when they displayed the following prowess. At Hyampolis, at the place where they expected the Thessalians to make their attack, they buried in the earth some earthenware pots, just covering them over with soil, and awaited the attack of the Thessalian cavalry: and they not knowing of the artifice of the Phocians spurred their horses on to these pots. And some of the horses were lamed by these pots, and some of the riders were killed others unhorsed. And when the Thessalians more angry than before with the Phocians gathered together a force from all their cities and invaded Phocis, then the Phocians (in no small alarm at the various preparations made by the Thessalians for war, and not least at the quantity and quality of their cavalry), sent to Delphi to inquire how they were to escape from the coming danger: and the answer of the oracle was, “I put together in combat a mortal and immortal, and I shall give victory to both, but the greater victory to the mortal.” When the Phocians heard this they sent 300 picked men under Gelon against the enemy at nightfall, bidding them watch as stealthily as they could the movements of the Thessalians, and return to the camp by the most out-of-the-way road, and not to fight if they could help it. These picked men were all cut to pieces by the Thessalians together with their leader Gelon, being ridden down by the horses, and butchered by their riders. And their fate brought such consternation into the camp of the Phocians, that they gathered together their women and children and all their goods, their apparel and gold and silver and the statues of the gods, and made a very large funeral pile, and left thirty men in charge with strict orders if the Phocians should be defeated in the battle, to cut the throats of the women and children, and offer them as victims with all the property on the funeral pile, and set light to it, and either kill one another there, or rush on the Thessalian cavalry. Desperate resolves such as this have ever since been called by the Greeks Phocian Resolution. And forthwith the Phocians marched forth against the Thessalians, under the command of Rhœus of Ambrosus and Daiphantes of Hyampolis, the latter in command of the cavalry, and the former in command of the infantry. But the commander in chief was Tellias, the seer of Elis, on whom all the hopes of the Phocians for safety were placed. And when the engagement came on, then the Phocians bethought them of their resolves as to their women and children, and saw that their own safety was by no means certain, they were consequently full of desperation, and the omens of the god being auspicious, won one of the most famous victories of their time. Then the oracle which was given to the Phocians by Apollo became clear to all the Greeks, for the word given by the Thessalian commanders was Itonian Athene, and the word given by the Phocian commanders Phocus. In consequence of this victory the Phocians sent to Apollo to Delphi statues of the seer Tellias and of the other commanders in the battle, and also of the local heroes. These statues were by Aristomedon the Argive.
The Phocians also found out another contrivance as successful as their former one.[84] For when the enemy’s camp was pitched at the entrance to Phocis, five hundred picked Phocians waited till the moon was at its full, and made a night attack on the Thessalians, having smeared themselves and likewise their armour with plaster so as to look white. A tremendous slaughter of the Thessalians is said to have ensued, who looked upon what they saw as a divine appearance, and not as a ruse of the enemy.
It was Tellias of Elis who contrived this trick on the Thessalians.
[84] Reading τῶν πρότερον as Siebelis suggests.
CHAPTER II.
When the army of the Persians passed into Europe, it is said that the Phocians were obliged to join Xerxes, but they deserted the Medes and fought on the Greek side at Platæa. Some time afterwards a fine was imposed upon them by the Amphictyonic Council. I cannot ascertain why, whether it was imposed upon them because they had acted unjustly in some way, or whether it was their old enemies the Thessalians who got this fine imposed. And as they were in a state of great despondency about the largeness of the fine, Philomelus the son of Philotimus, second in merit to none of the Phocians, whose native place was Ledon one of the Phocian cities, addressed them and showed them how impossible it was to pay the money, and urged upon them to seize the temple at Delphi, alleging among other persuasive arguments that the condition of Athens and Lacedæmon was favourable to this plan, and that if the Thebans or any other nation warred against them, they would come off victorious through their courage and expenditure of money. The majority of the Phocians were pleased with the arguments of Philomelus, whether the deity perverted their judgment,[85] or that they put gain before piety. So the Phocians seized the temple at Delphi, when Heraclides was President at Delphi, and Agathocles Archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the 105th Olympiad, when Prorus of Cyrene was victorious in the course. And after seizing the temple they got together the strongest army of mercenaries in Greece, and the Thebans, who had previously been at variance with them, openly declared war against them. The war lasted 10 continuous years, and during that long time frequently the Phocians and their mercenaries prevailed, frequently the Thebans had the best of it. But in an engagement near the town Neon the Phocians were routed, and Philomelus in his flight threw himself down a steep and precipitous crag, and so perished: and the Amphictyonic Council imposed the same end on all those who had plundered the temple at Delphi. And after the death of Philomelus the Phocians gave the command to Onomarchus, and Philip the son of Amyntas joined the Thebans: and Philip was victorious in the battle, and Onomarchus fled in the direction of the sea, and was there shot by the arrows of his own soldiers, for they thought their defeat had come about through his cowardice and inexperience in military matters. Thus Onomarchus ended his life by the will of the deity, and the Phocians chose his brother Phayllus as commander in chief with unlimited power. And he had hardly been invested with this power when he saw the following apparition in a dream. Among the votive offerings of Apollo was an imitation in brass of an old man, with his flesh already wasted away and his bones only left. It was said by the Delphians to have been a votive offering given by Hippocrates the doctor. Phayllus dreamt that he was like this old man, and forthwith a wasting disease came upon him, and fulfilled the dream. And after the death of Phayllus the chief power at Phocis devolved upon his son Phalæcus, but he was deposed because he helped himself privately to the sacred money. And he sailed over to Crete with those Phocians who joined his party, and with a portion of the mercenaries, and besieged Cydonia, because the inhabitants would not give him the money he demanded, and in the siege lost most of his army and his own life.
[85] Compare the Proverb, Quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius.