country, and had left men’s minds in an excited condition, eager for fresh changes and revolutions.  The Macedonians were very sensible of the dangerous crisis through which they were passing, and hoped that Alexander would refrain as far as possible from interfering in the affairs of Greece, deal gently with the insurgent chiefs of his barbarian subjects, and carefully guard against revolutionary outbreaks.  He, however, took quite a different view of the situation, conceiving it to be best to win safety by audacity, and carrying things with a high hand, thinking that if he showed the least sign of weakness, his enemies would all set upon him at once.  He crushed the risings of the barbarians by promptly marching through their country as far as the river Danube, and by winning a signal victory over Syrmus, the King of the Triballi.  After this, as he heard that the Thebans had revolted, and that the Athenians sympathised with them, he marched his army straight through Thermopylae, with the remark that Demosthenes, who had called him a boy while he was fighting the Illyrians and Triballi, and a youth while he was marching through Thessaly, should find him a man when he saw him before the gates of Athens.  When he reached Thebes, he gave the citizens an opportunity to repent of their conduct, only demanding Phoenix and Prothytes to be given up to him, and offering the rest a free pardon if they would join him.  When, however, the Thebans in answer to this, demanded that he should give up Philotas and Antipater to them, and called upon all who were willing to assist in the liberation of Greece to come and join them, he bade his Macedonians prepare for battle.

The Thebans, although greatly outnumbered, fought with superhuman valour; but they were taken in the rear by the Macedonian garrison, who suddenly made a sally from the Kadmeia, and the greater part of them were surrounded and fell fighting.  The city was captured, plundered and destroyed.  Alexander hoped by this terrible example to strike terror into the other Grecian states, although he put forward the specious pretext that he was avenging the wrongs of his allies; for the Plataeans and Phokians had made some complaints of the conduct of the Thebans towards them.  With the exception of the priests, the personal friends and guests of the Macedonians, the descendants of the poet Pindar, and those who had opposed the revolt, he sold for slaves all the rest of the inhabitants, thirty thousand in number.  More than six thousand men perished in the battle.

XII.  Amidst the fearful scene of misery and disorder which followed the capture of the city, certain Thracians broke into the house of one Timoklea, a lady of noble birth and irreproachable character.  Their leader forcibly violated her, and then demanded whether she had any gold or silver concealed.  She said that she had, led him alone into the garden, and, pointing to a well, told him that when the city was taken she