Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/73

 DESTRUCTION OF THEBES. 41 wholesale slaughter was accompanied of course by all the i^lun- cler and manifold outrage with which victorious assailants usually reward themselves.' More than five hundred Macedonians are asserted to have been slain, and six thousand Thebans. Thirty thousand captives were collected.^ The final destiny of these captives, and of Thebes itself, was submitted by Alexander to the Orchomenians, Platieans, Phokians, and other Grecian auxiliaries in the assault. He must have known well beforehand what the sentence of such judges would be. They pronounced, that the city of Thebes should be razed to the ground : that the Kadmeia alone should be maintained, as a military post with Macedonian garrison : that the Theban territory should be distributed among the allies themselves : that Orchomenus and Plataja should be rebuilt and fortified : that all the captive Thebans, men, women, and chil- dren, should be sold as slaves — excepting only priests and priestesses, and such as were connected by recognized ties of hospitality with Philip or Alexander, or such as had been prox- eni of the Macedonians ; that the Thebans who had escaped should be proclaimed outlaws, liable to arrest and death, Avher- ever they were found ; and that every Grecian city should be interdicted from harboring them.^ This overwhelming sentence, in spite of an appeal for lenity by a Theban* named Kleadas, was passed by the Grecian auxil- iaries of Alexander, and executed by Alexander himself, who made but one addition to the excepting clauses. He left the house of Pindar standing, and spared the descendants of the poet. With these reserves, Thebes was effaced from the earth. The Theban territory was partitioned among the reconstituted cities of Orchomenus and Platoea. Nothing, except the Macedonian mil- itary post at the Kadmeia, remained to mark the place where the chief of the Boeotian confederacy had once stood. The captives were all sold, and are said to have yielded 440 talents ; large prices being offered by bidders from feelings of hostility towards ' Arrian, i. 8; Dodor. xvii. 12, 13. totals of 6000 and 30,000, ^ Arrian, i. 9 : Diodor. xvii.l4. * Justin, xi. 4 4*
 * Diodorus (xvii. 14) and Plutarch (Alcxand. 11) agree in giving i >^