In Greece Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, was assassinated by his own wife Thebe and her brothers Lycophron and Tisiphonus.1 The brothers at first received great acclaim as tyrannicides, but later, having changed their purpose and bribed the mercenaries, they disclosed themselves as tyrants, slew many of their opponents, and, having contrived to make their forces imposing, retained the government by force. [2] Now the faction among the Thessalians called Aleuadae, who enjoyed a far-flung reputation by reason of their noble birth, began to oppose the tyrants. But not being of sufficient strength to fight by themselves they took on Philip, the king of the Macedonians, as ally. And he, entering Thessaly, defeated the tyrants and, when he had vindicated the independence of their cities, showed himself very friendly to the Thessalians. Wherefore in the course of subsequent events not merely Philip himself but his son Alexander after him had the Thessalians always as confederates. [3]
Among historians Demophilus,2 the son of the chronicler Ephorus, who treated in his work the history of what is known as the Sacred War, which had been passed over by his father, began his account with the capture of the shrine at Delphi and the pillaging of the oracle by Philomelus the Phocian. This war lasted eleven years3 until the annihilation of those who had divided amongst themselves the sacred property. [4] And Callisthenes4 wrote the history of the events in the Hellenic world in ten books and closed with the capture of the shrine and the impious act of Philomelus the Phocian. [5] Diyllus5 the Athenian began his history with the pillaging of the shrine and wrote twenty-six books, in which he included all the events which occurred in this period both in Greece and in Sicily.