§16.24.1τῶν δὲ Φωκέων διὰ τὸν ἐκ τῆς καταδίκης φόβον ἑλομένων αὐτὸν αὐτοκράτορα στρατηγὸν ὁ Φιλόμηλος ἐνεργῶς ἐπετέλει τὰς ἐπαγγελίας.
Since the Phocians, because of their fear of the condemnation, had elected him general with absolute power, Philomelus actively set about fulfilling his promises.
πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ παρελθὼν εἰς τὴν Σπάρτην ἐν ἀπορρήτοις διελέχθη τῷ βασιλεῖ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων Ἀρχιδάμῳ, ὅτι κοινὸς ὁ ἀγών ἐστιν αὐτῷ περὶ τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὰς κρίσεις τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων ἀκύρους· εἶναι γὰρ καὶ κατὰ τῶν Λακεδαιμονίων μεγάλας καὶ ἀδίκους ἀποφάσεις τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων.
First, having gone to Sparta, he spoke in secret with Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, saying that the struggle to make the decisions of the Amphictyons void was common to him as well; for there existed heavy and unjust decrees of the Amphictyons against the Lacedaemonians too.
ἐδήλωσεν οὖν αὐτῷ διότι τοὺς Δελφοὺς καταλαβέσθαι διέγνωκε καὶ τῆς προστασίας ἐὰν ἐγκρατὴς γένηται τὰ δόγματα τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων ἀκυρώσει.
Therefore, he made it clear to him that he had decided to seize Delphi, and that if he should gain control of the administration, he would make the decrees of the Amphictyons void.
§16.24.2ὁ δʼ Ἀρχίδαμος ἀποδεξάμενος τὸν λόγον φανερῶς μὲν κατὰ τὸ παρὸν οὐκ ἔφησε βοηθήσειν, λάθρᾳ δὲ πάντα συμπράξειν χορηγῶν καὶ χρήματα καὶ μισθοφόρους.
Archidamus, having accepted the proposal, said that for the present he would not assist openly, but that secretly he would cooperate in every way, supplying both money and mercenaries.
ὁ δὲ Φιλόμηλος παρὰ μὲν τούτου πεντεκαίδεκα τάλαντα λαβών, ἰδίᾳ δὲ προσθεὶς οὐκ ἐλάττω τούτων μισθοφόρους τε ξένους ἐμισθώσατο καὶ τῶν Φωκέων ἐπέλεξε χιλίους, οὓς ὠνόμασε πελταστάς.
Philomelus, receiving fifteen talents from him and adding from his own private means no less than this sum, hired foreign mercenaries and selected one thousand of the Phocians, whom he named peltasts.
§16.24.3ἀθροίσας δὲ στρατιωτῶν πλῆθος καὶ καταλαβόμενος τὸ μαντεῖον τούς τε Θρακίδας καλουμένους τῶν Δελφῶν ἐναντιουμένους ἀνεῖλε καὶ τὰς οὐσίας αὐτῶν ἐδήμευσε· τοὺς δʼ ἄλλους ὁρῶν καταπεπληγμένους παρεκάλει θαρρεῖν ὡς οὐδενὸς ἐσομένου περὶ αὐτοὺς δεινοῦ.
Having assembled a force of soldiers and seized the oracle, he put to death those of the Delphians opposed to him who were called Thracidae, and confiscated their property; and seeing the others terrified, he exhorted them to take courage, saying that no harm would come to them.
§16.24.4διαβοηθείσης δὲ τῆς περὶ τὸ ἱερὸν καταλήψεως Λοκροὶ μὲν οἱ πλησίον οἰκοῦντες παραχρῆμα ἐστράτευσαν ἐπὶ τὸν Φιλόμηλον.
When the news of the seizure of the temple was spread abroad, the Locrians who lived nearby immediately marched against Philomelus.
γενομένης δὲ περὶ Δελφοὺς μάχης οἱ μὲν Λοκροὶ λειφθέντες καὶ πολλοὺς ἀποβαλόντες τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἔφυγον εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν, ὁ δὲ Φιλόμηλος ἐπαρθεὶς τῇ νίκῃ τὰς τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων ἀποφάσεις ἔκ τε τῶν στηλῶν ἐξέκοψε καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν καταδικῶν γράμματα κατέλυσεν, §16.24.5αὐτὸς δὲ διέδωκε λόγον ὡς οὔτε συλᾶν τὸ μαντεῖον διέγνωκεν οὔτʼ ἄλλην οὐδεμίαν παράνομον πρᾶξιν συντελεῖν βεβούλευται, τῆς δὲ προγονικῆς προστασίας ἀμφισβητῶν καὶ τὰς τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων ἀδίκους ἀποφάσεις ἀκυρῶσαι βουλόμενος βοηθεῖν τοῖς πατρίοις νόμοις τῶν Φωκέων.
A battle having taken place near Delphi, the Locrians, being defeated and losing many of their soldiers, fled to their own country; and Philomelus, elated by the victory, erased the decrees of the Amphictyons from the pillars and destroyed the records concerning the condemnations, while he himself spread a report that he had neither decided to plunder the oracle nor had resolved to commit any other lawless act, but that, disputing for the ancestral administration and wishing to make the unjust decisions of the Amphictyons void, he was coming to the aid of the ancestral laws of the Phocians.