Κλεώνυμος ὁ Λακεδαιμόνιος, βασιλείου γένους ὢν καὶ πολλὰ κατορθώσας Λακεδαιμονίοις, ἔγημε Χειλωνίδα προσήκουσαν αὐτῷ κατὰ γένος. Ταύτῃ σφοδρῶς ἐπιτεταμένου τοῦ Κλεωνύμου καὶ τὸν ἔρωτα οὐκ ἠρέμα φέροντος, τοῦ μὲν κατηλόγει, πᾶσα δὲ ἐνέκειτο Ἀκροτάτῳ, τῷ τοῦ βασιλέως υἱεῖ·
καὶ γὰρ ὁ μειρακίσκος αὐτῆς ἀναφανδὸν ὑπεκάετο, ὥστε πάντας ἀνὰ στόμα ἔχειν τὴν ὁμιλίαν αὐτῶν. δι’ ἣν αἰτίαν δυσαναχετήσας ὁ Κλεώνυμος καὶ ἄλλως δὲ οὐκ ἀρεσκόμενος τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις ἔθεσιν, ἐπεραιώθη πρὸς Πύρρον εἰς Ἤπειρον καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναπείθει πειρᾶσθαι τῆς Πελοποννήσου, ὡς εἴ γε ἐντόνως ἅψαιντο τοῦ πολέμου, ῥᾳδίως ἐκπολιορκήσοντες τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ πόλεις· ἔφη δὲ καὶ αὐτῷ τι ἤδη προδιειργάσθαι, ὥστε καὶ στάσιν ἐγγενέσθαι τισὶ τῶν πόλεων.
1. Cleonymus of Sparta, who was of royal stock and had done great things for the Lacedaemonians, took to wife his kinswoman Chilonis. He loved her with a great love—his was no gentle passion—but she despised him, and gave her whole heart to Acrotatus, the son of the king. 2. Indeed the stripling let the fire of his love shew openly, so that all men were talking of their intrigue; wherefore Cleonymus, being sorely vexed, and having besides no liking for the Lacedaemonians and their ways, crossed over to Pyrrhus in Epirus and advised him to attack the Peloponnese; if they prosecuted the war vigorously, he said, they would without difficulty storm the Lacedaemonian cities; and he added that he had already prepared the ground, so that in many of the cities there would be a revolt in his favour.
Ἱππαρῖνος δ’ ὁ Συρακοσίων τύραννος εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν ἀφίκετο πάνυ καλοῦ παιδός· Ἀχαιὸς αὐτῷ ὄνομα. Τοῦτον ἐξαλλάγμασι πολλοῖς ὑπαγόμενος πείθει τὴν οἰκίαν ἀπολιπόντα σὺν αὐτῷ μένειν· χρόνου δὲ προϊόντος, ὡς πολεμίων τις ἔφοδος προσηγγέλη πρός τι τῶν ὑπ’ ἐκείνου κατεχομένων χωρίων, καὶ ἔδει κατὰ τάχος βοηθεῖν, ἐξορμῶν ὁ Ἱππαρῖνος παρεκελεύσατο τῷ παιδί, εἴ τις ἐντὸς τῆς αὐλῆς βιάζοιτο, κατακαίνειν αὐτὸν τῇ σπάθῃ, ἣν ἐτύγχανεν αὐτῷ κεχαρισμένος.
Κἀπειδὴ συμβαλὼν τοῖς πολεμίοις κατὰ κράτος αὐτοὺς εἷλεν, ἐπὶ πολὺν οἶνον ἐτράπετο καὶ συνουσίαν· ἐκκαόμενος δὲ ὑπὸ μέθης καὶ πόθου τοῦ παιδὸς ἀφίππευσεν εἰς τὰς Συρακούσας, καὶ παραγενόμενος ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκίαν, ἔνθα τῷ παιδὶ παρεκελεύσατο μένειν, ὃς μὲν ἦν οὐκ ἐδήλου, θετταλίζων δὲ τῇ φωνῇ τὸν Ἱππαρῖνον ἔφησεν ἀπεκτονηκέναι· ὁ δὲ παῖς διαγανακτήσας, σκότους ὄντος παίει καιρίαν τὸν Ἱππαρῖνον· ὁ δὲ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἐπιβιοὺς καὶ τοῦ φόνου τὸν Ἀχαιὸν ἀπολύσας ἐτελεύτησεν.
1. Hipparinus, tyrant of Syracuse, felt a great affection for a very fair boy named Achaeus, and, by means of presents of varying kinds, persuaded him to leave his home and stay with him in his palace. Some little time after, the news was brought to him of a hostile incursion into one of the territories belonging to him, and he had to go with all speed to help his subjects. When he was starting, he told the boy that if anyone of the courtiers offered violence to him, he was to stab him with the dagger which he had given him as a present. 2. Hipparinus met his enemies and inflicted on them an utter defeat, and celebrated his victory by deep potations of wine and by banqueting: then, heated with the wine and by desire to see the lad, he rode off at full gallop to Syracuse. Arriving at the house where he had bidden the boy to stay, he did not tell him who he was, but, putting on a Thessalian accent, cried out that he had killed Hipparinus: it was dark, and the boy, in his anger and grief, struck him and gave him a mortal wound. He lived for three days, acquitted Achaeus of the guilt of his death, and then breathed his last.
Φάυλλος δ’ ὁ τύραννος ἠράσθη τῆς Ἀρίστωνος γυναικός, ὃς Οἰταίων προστάτης ἦν· οὗτος διαπεμπόμενος πρὸς αὐτὴν χρυσόν τε πολὺν καὶ ἄργυρον ἐπηγγέλλετο δώσειν, εἴ τέ τινος ἄλλου δέοιτο φράζειν ἐκέλευεν ὡς οὐχ ἁμαρτησομένην.
Τὴν δ’ ἄρα πολὺς εἶχε πόθος ὅρμου τοῦ τότε κειμένου ἐν τῷ τῆς Προνοίας Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερῷ, ὃν εἶχε λόγος Ἐριφύλης γεγονέναι, ἠξίου τε ταύτης τῆς δωρεᾶς τυχεῖν.
Φάυλλος δὲ τά τε ἄλλα κατασύρων ἐκ Δελφῶν ἀναθήματα ἀναιρεῖται καὶ τὸν ὅρμον· ἐπεὶ δὲ διεκομίσθη εἰς οἶκον τὸν Ἀρίστωνος, χρόνον μέν τινα ἐφόρει αὐτὸν ἡ γυνὴ μάλα περίπυστος οὖσα, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα παραπλήσιον αὐτῇ πάθος συνέβη τῷ περὶ τὴν Ἐριφύλην γενομένῳ.
Ὁ γὰρ νεώτερος τῶν υἱῶν αὐτῆς μανεὶς τὴν οἰκίαν ὑφῆψε, καὶ τήν τε μητέρα καὶ τὰ πολλὰ τῶν κτημάτων κατέφλεξε.
From Phylarchus
1. The tyrant Phayllus fell in love with the wife of Ariston, chief of the Oetaeans: he sent envoys to her, with promises of much silver and gold, and told them to add that if there were anything else which she wanted, she should not fail of her desire. 2. Now she had a great longing for a necklace that was at that time hanging in the temple of Athene the goddess of Forethought: it was said formerly to have belonged to Eriphyle; and this was the present for which she asked. Phayllus took a great booty of the offerings at Delphi, the necklace among the rest: 3. it was sent to the house of Ariston, and for some considerable time the woman wore it, and was greatly famed for so doing. But later she suffered a fate very similar to that of Eriphyle: her youngest son went mad and set fire to their house, and in the course of the conflagration both she and a great part of their possessions were consumed.
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