Bibliotheca Historica

​Ptolemy, who held dominion over the cities in Cyprus, when he learned from certain people that Nicocles, the king of the Paphians, had secretly and privately concluded an alliance with Antigonus, sent Argaeus and Callicrates, two of his friends, commanding them to put Nicocles to death; for he was very much afraid lest some of the others also should be impelled to a change of allegiance, seeing that those who had previously revolted had gone unpunished. So, these men, having sailed to the island and having received soldiers from Menelaus the general, surrounded the house of Nicocles and, declaring the decrees of the king, ordered him to rid himself of life.

​He at first turned to a defense against the accusations; but when no one paid attention, he killed himself. Axiothea, the wife of Nicocles, hearing of her husband’s death, slaughtered her own daughters, who were virgins, so that no enemy might get possession of them, and urged the wives of Nicocles’ brothers to choose death along with her, although Ptolemy had given no orders concerning the women but had conceded them their safety.

​When the palace had been filled with slaughter and unexpected disasters, the brothers of Nicocles, having shut the doors, set fire to the house and killed themselves. Thus the house of the kings in Paphos, having met with tragic sufferings, was destroyed in the manner described. But we, having gone through the narration of the events that occurred in Cyprus, will transfer our account to the subsequent actions.