Diæus

Family: Achæans · Role: General of the Achæans · First appears: Book 7 · Chapter 12

In Book 7, Chapter 12, Menalcidas gave Diæus three talents at Oropus to secure his acquittal. Diæus, Menalcidas’s successor as General of the Achæans, helped save him despite opposition from the Achæans, while separately misleading the Achæans about Rome’s ruling. Diæus also argued bitterly with Menalcidas before the Senate. Disputes over the Roman decision helped bring war between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians; at Rome, Diæus and Callicrates were sent to plead against Spartan exiles.

In Chapter 13, chosen to succeed Damocritus as General, Diæus agreed, after a message from Metellus, to await Roman arbitrators rather than continue the war. He then won neighboring towns to the Achæan side and placed garrisons in them as bases against Sparta. After Diæus’s term, Critolaus succeeded him; in Chapter 15, Diæus was again made Commander-in-Chief and freed slaves for the Achæan army. After the Achæan defeat at Megalopolis in Chapter 16, he fled there, killed his wife so she would not be taken captive, and took poison. In Book 8, Chapter 30, Diophanes is identified as Diæus’s son.