30

those wishing to offer their own possessions were to bring them from their own houses, and if they were worthy to satisfy a greedy eye, these were to be deemed worthy of salvation and again be numbered among the prisoners, but if they were something cheap and small and with which they judged the one who sent them would not be pleased, they were to become victims of the sword. 58.6 From this, the danger was not small again for those who had been captured, with many being selected from those who had some highly prized material. 58.7 And these things were carried out for ten whole days and nights, with a great quantity of valuables always being brought forth from the city, and of the remaining necessary material, as much as was beautiful in silken garments and as much in linen as rivaled the webs of spiders, so that the piles of these things formed mountains and hills, with some things being placed upon others and filling the space below. 58.8 For they cared not at all for bronze and iron vessels or for woolen clothes, considering their acquisition superfluous. 58.9 And if anyone secretly brought something of this sort, they gave it to the water of the sea, and in this way taking vengeance on those who had escaped the danger, so that they too might have some share in the evil, feeling the extensive and varied loss of their belongings. 59.1 There was a certain eunuch of the emperor, one of the eminent men, captured with the rest of the multitude of prisoners, called Rhodophyles, who happened to have been sent to the west a short time before the disaster and, being near the city for some needs, was shut up with us and partook of the said afflictions; 59.2 who also was carrying with him a large amount of gold, which he said he was taking for the sake of some aid for the army in Sicily, which was always engaged with the barbarians in Africa and needed much assistance in its affairs. 59.3 This man, therefore, during the night after we all experienced the trial of the disaster, secretly, I know not how, managed to get that gold out of the city with some of his servants, and to send it away to the general of Strymon, having written a letter containing instructions to guard it safely until the outcome of the war. 59.4 Having been captured, therefore, this man was brought before the face of the tyrant. And he, altering his expression, and treating him more sternly than he had before, questioned him. 59.5 'Where now,' he says, 'is the emperor's gold, the two talents which you were ordered to take to Sicily?' 59.6 And he says, 'As for this, which I feared would happen—I mean the siege of the city—since I myself, having arrived here, was unable in the presence of so great a danger to withdraw and not to show what I could do, with everyone looking to me as if I could provide them something good and useful at this time, for this very reason I secretly removed that gold from the city (for I could not conjecture accurately about uncertain things), and I stand before you today as a captive of the spear, the cause of many other riches, if indeed you keep me alive and unharmed.' 59.7 That braggart, therefore, being vexed at these things and making the anger that possessed him evident through both his eyes and his voice, shouted from the depths. 59.8 'Since,' he says, 'this man of the women's quarters has not learned from the preceding events that the sentence of death is inescapable for those who do not offer their own possessions as ransom, but as if on a stage makes a display, setting forth a great and wondrous fabrication of falsehood against his own salvation, let him be beaten with rods on both his hips and the parts along his back, so that he may now first learn to whom he stands before and about what things he speaks, and may not, by disputing about others' money, bring upon himself the danger for his life.' 59.9 The ministers of unjust murders, therefore, as soon as they saw him with a muttering voice and madness pronounce such a sentence against the one standing there, quicker than any word dashed him to the ground, and strike him with so many blows that the wretched man's body did not hold out for long but was torn into many pieces, and having filled the place below with streams of blood, so he gave up his soul, enduring

30

βουλομένους παρέχειν τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἐν ταῖς ἰδίαις ἀποφέρειν οἰκίαις, καὶ εἰ μὲν ἄξια ᾖ πλεονεκτικὸν ὀφθαλμὸν κορέσαι, σωτηρίας τε ἀξιοῦσθαι τούτους καὶ αὖθις τοῖς δεσμίοις ἐναριθμεῖσθαι, εἰ δ' εὐτελῆ τινα καὶ βραχέα καὶ οἷς οὐκ ἂν κρίνοιεν εὐδοκοῦντα τὸν ἀποστείλαντα, τῆς μαχαίρας γενέσθαι. 58.6 οὐκ ὀλίγος ἦν ἐκ τούτου πάλιν τοῖς χειρωθεῖσιν ὁ κίνδυνος, πολλῶν διακρινομένων ἐκ τῶν ἐχόντων ὕλην τινὰ περισπούδαστον. 58.7 ἐτελεῖτο δὲ ταῦτα ἐφ' ὅλοις νυχθημέροις δέκα, τῆς πληθύος ἀεὶ τῶν χρημάτων εὐφορουμένης ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως, τῆς τε λοιπῆς ἀναγκαίας ὕλης, ὅση διὰ σηρικῆς ἐσθῆτος εὐπρεπὴς ἦν καὶ ὅση διὰ λίνου τοῖς ἀραχνείοις ἤριζεν ὑφάσμασιν, ὡς ὄρη καὶ βουνοὺς ἐκτελεῖσθαι τὰς τούτων σωρείας, ἄλλων ἐπ' ἄλλοις ἐπιτιθεμένων καὶ τὸν ὑποκείμενον τόπον πληρούντων. 58.8 χαλκῶν γὰρ καὶ σιδηρέων σκευῶν ἢ τῶν ἐξ ἐρίων ἐσθημάτων οὐμενοῦν οὐδ' ὅλως ἐφρόντισαν, περιττὴν ἡγούμενοι τὴν κτῆσιν αὐτῶν. 58.9 εἴ που δέ τι τοιοῦτον ἀγαγὼν ἔλαθέ τις, τῷ τῆς θαλάσσης δεδώκασιν ὕδατι, κἀν τούτῳ τοὺς διαδράντας τὸν κίνδυνον ἀμυνόμενοι, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοί τι μετέχωσι τοῦ κακοῦ, πολυσχεδῆ καὶ διάφορον τὴν τῶν ἐνυπαρχόντων ζημίαν ἐπαισθανόμενοι. 59.1 Ἦν δέ τις μετὰ τοῦ λοιποῦ πλήθους τῶν αἰχμαλώτων συλληφθεὶς εὐνοῦχος τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τῶν ἐξόχων εἷς, Ῥοδοφύλης οὕτω καλούμενος, ὃς ἔτυχε πρὸ μικροῦ τοῦ κινδύνου τὴν ἐπὶ δύσιν σταλεὶς καί τινων χρειῶν ἕνεκεν πρὸς τῇ πόλει γενόμενος, μεθ' ἡμῶν συγκλεισθῆναι καὶ τῶν ῥηθέντων ἀνιαρῶν μετασχεῖν· 59.2 ὃς καὶ ἐκόμιζε μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ πλῆθος χρυσίου, ὅπερ ἔλεγεν ἀπάγειν ἐπικουρίας τινὸς χάριν τοῦ κατὰ Σικελίαν στρατοῦ, συμπλεκομένου τοῖς κατὰ τὴν Ἀφρικὴν βαρβάροις ἀεὶ καὶ πολλῆς δεομένου τῆς ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι συνεργίας. 59.3 οὗτος οὖν κατὰ τὴν νύκτα μεθ' ἣν τοῦ κινδύνου τὴν πεῖραν ἅπαντες ἐδεξάμεθα, ἔλαθεν οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐξενεγκεῖν τῆς πόλεως τὸ χρυσίον ἐκεῖνο μετὰ καί τινων τῶν ὑπηρετουμένων αὐτῷ, καὶ πρὸς τὸν στρατηγὸν Στρυμόνος ἐξαποστεῖλαι, χαράξας ἐπιστολὴν περιέχουσαν ἀσφαλῶς φυλάττειν τοῦτο μέχρι τῆς ἐκβάσεως τοῦ πολέμου. 59.4 χειρωθεὶς οὖν οὗτος ἤχθη κατὰ πρόσωπον τοῦ τυράννου. ὁ δὲ τὴν μορφὴν ἀλλοιώσας, ἐμβριθέστερόν τε μᾶλλον ἢ πρότερον εἶχε πρὸς αὐτὸν χρησάμενος, ἀνηρώτα. 59.5 «ποῦ δή» φησι «τὸ τοῦ βασιλέως χρυσίον, τὰ δύο τάλαντα ἅπερ ἐπὶ Σικελίαν ἄγειν ἐτάχθης;» 59.6 ὁ δέ «τοῦτο δή» φησιν, «εἰς ὅπερ κατείλημμαι δεδιώς, τὴν πολιορκίαν λέγω τῆς πόλεως, ἐπείπερ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ δεῦρο τυχὼν ἀδυνάτως εἶχον τοσούτου κινδύνου παρόντος ὑποχωρεῖν καὶ μὴ τὰ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ δεικνύναι, πάντων εἰς ἐμὲ βλεπόντων ὡς ἄν τι χρηστὸν αὐτοῖς καὶ καιρῷ τούτῳ χρήσιμον δυνάμενος παρασχεῖν, τούτου δὴ χάριν τὸ μὲν χρυσίον ἐκεῖνο τῆς πόλεως ὑπεξήγαγον (οὐ γὰρ ἐδυνάμην ἀκριβῶς περὶ ἀδήλων στοχάζεσθαι), ἐγὼ δέ σοι παρέστηκα τήμερον δορυάλωτος, πολλῶν ἄλλων χρημάτων παραίτιος, εἴ γε ζῶντά με καὶ ἀβλαβῆ συντηρήσειας.» 59.7 ἀχθεσθεὶς οὖν ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ ἀλαζὼν ἐκεῖνος καὶ τὸν θυμὸν ὁποῖος αὐτὸν εἶχε διά τε τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ τῆς φωνῆς ἔκδηλον παραστήσας βύθιον ἐξεβόησεν. 59.8 «ἐπειδήπερ» φησὶν «οὐκ ἔμαθεν ἐκ τῶν προκειμένων ἀδιάδραστον εἶναι τὴν τοῦ θανάτου ψῆφον τοῖς μὴ τὰ οἰκεῖα χρήματα λύτρον παρεχομένοις ὁ τῆς γυναικωνίτιδος οὗτος, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐπὶ σκηνῆς ἐπίδειξιν ποιεῖται, τὸ πλάσμα τοῦ ψεύδους μέγα καὶ θαυμαστὸν οἷον κατὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ προβαλλόμενος σωτηρίας, ῥάβδοις τυπτέσθω τά τε ἰσχία καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὸν νῶτον μέρη, ὡς ἂν ἄρτι γνῷ πρῶτον τίνι παρίσταται καὶ περὶ τίνων διαλέγεται, καὶ μὴ χρημάτων ἀλλοτρίων ἀμφισβητῶν τὸν περὶ ψυχῆς ἑαυτῷ περιποιεῖται κίνδυνον.» 59.9 οἱ λειτουργοὶ οὖν τῶν ἀδίκων φόνων, ὡς μόνον εἶδον αὐτὸν μεθ' ὑποσυρμοῦ φωνῆς καὶ μανίας τὴν τοιαύτην ψῆφον κατὰ τοῦ ἑστῶτος ἐξενεγκάμενον, θᾶττον λόγου παντὸς τῇ γῇ τοῦτον προσέρραξαν, καὶ τοσαύταις βάλλουσι πληγαῖς ὡς μὴ ἐπὶ πολὺ ἀντισχεῖν τοῦ ἀθλίου τὸ σῶμα ἀλλ' εἰς πολλὰ διαιρεθέν, καὶ τοῖς ὀχετοῖς τῶν αἱμάτων τὸν ὑποκείμενον τόπον πληρῶσαν, οὕτως τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπαφεῖναι, καρτερεῖν