[20,9] Ὅτι ἀμηχανοῦντα τὸν Πύρρον καὶ πόρους παντοδαποὺς ἐπιζητοῦντα ὁρῶντες {αὐτὸν} οἱ κάκιστοι καὶ ἀνοσιώτατοι τῶν φίλων, Εὐήγορος Θεοδώρου καὶ Βάλακρος Νικάνδρου καὶ Δείναρχος Νικίου, τῶν ἀθέων καὶ ἐξαγίστων δογμάτων ζηλωταί, πόρον ὑποτίθενται χρημάτων ἀνοσίων, τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀνοῖξαι τῆς Περσεφόνης θησαυρούς. ἦν γὰρ ἱερὸν ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ ἅγιον καὶ πολὺν χρυσὸν ἐκ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου πεφυλαγμένον ἄθικτον ἔχον, ἐν ᾧ χρυσός τις ἄβυσσος, ἀόρατος τοῖς πολλοῖς κατὰ γῆς κείμενος. ὑπὸ τούτων ἐξαπατηθεὶς τῶν κολάκων καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀνάγκην κρείττονα παντός, τοῖς εἰσηγησαμένοις τὴν γνώμην ἀνδράσι διακόνοις τῆς ἱεροσυλίας ἐχρήσατο, καὶ τὸν ἐξελαθέντα χρυσὸν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ναυσὶν ἐνθέμενος μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων χρημάτων ἀπέστειλεν εἰς Τάραντα πολλῆς μεστὸς εὐθυμίας γενόμενος. Ἡ δὲ δικαία πρόνοια τὴν αὑτῆς δύναμιν ἀπεδείξατο. ὡς γὰρ ἀνήχθησαν αἱ νῆες ἀπὸ τοῦ λιμένος, τὴν μὲν ἀπόγειον αὖραν λαβοῦσαι προέκοψαν· ἄνεμος δ´ ἐναντίος γενόμενος καὶ δι´ ὅλης νυκτὸς κατασχὼν ἃς μὲν κατέκλυσεν, ἃς δ´ εἰς τὸν τῆς Σικελίας πορθμὸν ἐξέβαλεν, ἐν αἷς δὲ παρεκομίζετο τὰ ἀναθήματα καὶ ὁ προσενεχθεὶς ἐκ τῶν ἀναθημάτων χρυσὸς ἐπὶ τοὺς Λοκροὺς ἐξώκειλεν αἰγιαλούς· καὶ τοὺς μὲν πλέοντας ἐν αὐταῖς ἐν τῇ παλιρροίᾳ τῶν κυμάτων κατακλυζομένους διέφθειρε, τὰ δ´ ἱερὰ χρήματα διασπασθεισῶν τῶν νεῶν ἐπὶ τὰς ἔγγιστα τῶν Λοκρῶν θῖνας ἐξέβρασεν. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς καταπλαγεὶς ἅπαντα τὸν κόσμον καὶ τοὺς θησαυροὺς ἀπέδωκε τῇ θεῷ ὡς παραιτησόμενος αὐτῆς διὰ τοῦτο τὸν χόλον· Νήπιος, οὐδὲ τὸ ᾔδει, ὃ οὐ πείσεσθαι ἔμελλεν. Οὐ γάρ τ´ αἶψα θεῶν τρέπεται νόος αἰὲν ἐόντων, ὡς Ὁμήρῳ εἴρηται. ἀλλ´ ἐπειδὴ τῶν ἱερῶν ἐτόλμησεν ἅψασθαι χρημάτων καὶ πόρον ὑποθέσθαι πολέμων, ἀνόνητον ἐποίησε τὴν ἔννοιαν αὐτοῦ τὸ δαιμόνιον, ἵνα παράδειγμα καὶ παίδευμα πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις γένοιτο τοῖς μεθ´ ἑαυτόν.

[20,9] (19.9) Observing that Pyrrhus was embarrassed and was seeking funds from every possible source, the worst and most depraved of his friends, Euegorus, the son of Theodorus, Balacrus, the son of Nicander, and Deinarchus, the son of Nicias, followers of godless and accursed doctrines, suggested an impious source for the raising of funds, namely, to open up the sacred treasures of Persephonê. 2 For there was a holy temple in this city that contained much wealth, guarded and untouched from the earliest times; included in this there was an unfathomed quantity of gold, buried in the earth out of sight of the multitude. Pyrrhus, misled by the se flatterers and because of his necessity that was stronger than any scruples, employed as his agents in the sacrilege the men who had made the proposal; and placing the gold plundered from the temple in ships, he sent it along with his other funds to Tarentum, having now become filled with great cheer. (10) But a just Providence showed its power. For, (p419) though the ships, upon putting out from the harbour, found a land breeze and made progress, an adverse wind sprang up, and holding through the entire night, sank some of them, drove others into the Sicilian strait, and, in the case of those in which the offerings and the gold yielded by the offerings was being transported, drove them ashore on the beaches of Locri. The men on board the ships were submerged and perished in the backwash of the waves, and the sacred moneys, when the ships broke up, were cast ashore on the sand-banks nearest to Locri. 2 The king, terror-stricken, restored all the ornaments and treasures to the goddess, hoping thereby to appease her wrath; The fool, nor wist that she would ne'er give ear: For not so quickly do the deathless gods Their purpose change. as Homer has said. 3 Nay, since he had dared to lay hands on the sacred moneys and to pledge them as a war fund, the divinity brought his intention to naught, in order that he might serve as an example and lesson to all men who should come after him.