Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/292

 284 TIIRACIAN SAVAGERY [vil saw. " For the Thracians, when they dare, can be as bloody as the worst barbarians •''. There in M3'calessus the wildest panic ensued, and destruction in every form was rife. They even fell upon a boys' school, the largest in the place, which the children had just entered, and massacred them every one. No calamity could be worse than this, touching as it did the whole city, none was ever so sudden or so terrible. 30 When the news reached the Thebans they hastened to The Thebans soon the rescue. Coming upon the Thracians come upon them and before they had gone far, they took they me driven back ^way the spoil and, putting them to with loss to thar ships, ^i • 1 11 1 t^ • flight, pursued them to the Luripus, where the ships which had brought them were moored. Of those who fell, the greater number were slain in the attempt to embark ; for they did not know how to swim, and the men on board, seeing what was happening, had anchored their vessels out of bow-shot''. In the retreat itself the Thracians made a very fair defence against the Theban cavalry which first attacked them, running out and closing in again, after the manner of their country ; and their loss was trifling. But a good many who re- mained for the sake of plunder were cut off within the city and slain. The whole number who fell was two hundred and fifty, out of thirteen hundred. They killed, however, some of the Thebans and others who came to the rescue, in all about twenty, both horsemen and hoplites. Scirphondas, one of the Theban Boeotarchs, was slain. A large proportion of the Mycalessians perished. Such was the fate of Mycalessus ; considering the size of the cit}', no calamity more deplorable occurred during the war ^'. 31 Demosthenes, who after helping to build the fort on the " Or, ' For the Thracians, hkc all very barbarous tribes, are most bloody when they are least afraid.' '' Reading rofeii/inros with Valla's translation. ' Cp. iii. 113 fin.