"The explicit passage in Diodorus (xi. 65), which seems at first sight a conclusive corroboration of the ordinary view, only strengthens my conviction that it is wrong. Diodorus is precise about the date. He says that in the 78th Ol. (468-4), while the Spartans were in great trouble on account of a destructive earthquake and rising of the Helots and Messenians, the Argives took the opportunity of attacking Mycenæ. But they did so because Mycenæ _alone of the cities_ in their territories would not submit to them. This distinctly asserts that all the other towns, such as Tiryns and Midea, had been formerly subdued, and contradicts Pausanias. Diodorus then enumerates the various claims of Mycenæ to old privileges about the Heraeon and the Nemean Games, and adds what Pausanias says about their joining the Greeks at Thermopylæ, alone among the Argive cities. The share taken by Tiryns with Mycenæ at Platæa seems unknown to both authors. But after long waiting for an opportunity, the Argives now collected a considerable force from Argos and the allied cities, and made war upon Mycenæ--upon Mycenæ, which was only able, jointly with Tiryns, to supply 400 men at Platæa, and which, when unaided, sent 60 men to Thermopylæ! The Argives first defeated them in battle, and then besieged the fortress, which, after some time, through lack of defenders (which is indeed credible), they _stormed_. Here again Pausanias is contradicted. Diodorus concludes with stating that they _enslaved_ the Mycenæans, consecrating a tenth of the spoil, and levelled the town with the ground.