Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 2.djvu/44

 36 THE END OF THE CORCYRAEAN OLIGARCHS [iv island friends of the captives, whom with seeming good- will they instructed to tell them that they had better escape as fast as they could, for the fact was that the Athenian generals were about to hand them over to the Corcyraean democracy; they would themselves provide a vessel. 47 The friends of the captives persuaded a few of them, The captive oligarchs and the vessel was provided. The arc induced by a hick prisoners were taken sailing out ; the io break their parole. , i, , ,. ar.d are delivered up !^"^<^ ^""^^ ^^ ''^" ^'1^' '^"cl they were all to the vengeance of the instantly delivered up to the Cor- ConyraeaHs. cyraeans. The feeling which the Athenian generals displayed greatly contributed to the result ; for, being compelled to proceed to Sicily them- selves, they were well known to wish that no one else should gain the credit of bringing the prisoners to Athens; n and therefore the agreement was interpreted to the letter*, and the contrivers of the trick thought that they could execute it with impunity. The Corcyraeans took the prisoners and shut them up in a large building ; then, leading them out in bands of twenty at a time, they made them pass between two files of armed men ; they were bound to one another and struck and pierced b}' the men on each side, whenever any one saw among them an enemy of his own ; and there were men with whips, who accom- panied them to the place of execution and quickened the steps of those who lingered. 48 In this manner they brought the prisoners out of the 7., ,, building, and slew them to the number They are cruelly r ■ ttiassacred. ThcAthen- of Sixty undiscovered by the rest, who ian commanders, who thought that they wcre taking them did not want them to „,,,„,, t-^ r.^.„„ «tU ^1 t> l. . •. . ., . away to some other place. But soon be carried by others to Athens, look on with they found out what was happening, indifference. They now for some One told them, and then they pu^^ne their voyage to called upon the Athenians, if they wanted them to die, to take their lives " Or, ' and so the pretext turned out to be the exact truth ; ' or, ' and so the pretext seemed to correspond to the facts.'