Laudator Temporis Acti

With money so short the Athenians were unwilling to commit to expenditure, and so they immediately sent away the Thracians who had arrived too late for Demosthenes’ expedition. They commissioned Diitrephes to take them back home and told him to use them to do the enemy any damage he could on the way (they were going by the Euripus channel). [2] He disembarked them at Tanagra and quickly grabbed some plunder, then at nightfall sailed from Chalcis in Euboea across the Euripus and after landing in Boeotia led them against Mycalessus. [3] He camped for the night undetected near the sanctuary of Hermes, somewhat less than two miles from Mycalessus and at daybreak made an assault on the town, which is not a large one. He took it by storm, falling on the inhabitants when they were off their guard and not expecting anyone to come so far inland to attack them; besides, their walls were weak, in some places dilapidated and in others built to no great height; and at the same time the gates had been left open because they felt they had nothing to fear. [4] The Thracians surged into Mycalessus and started sacking the houses and temples and butchering the people; they spared neither young nor old but killed everyone in their path as they came on them — women and children, even beasts of burden and any other living thing they set eyes on. These Thracians are at their most murderous when their blood is up, like the very worst savages. [5] On this occasion total mayhem ensued, and death and destruction came in every form. They even burst in on a boys’ school, the largest one there, just after the pupils had entered it, and they massacred them all. So disaster struck the whole city and was the worst ever suffered, so sudden was it and so terrible.

[1] τοὺς οὖν Θρᾷκας τοὺς τῷ Δημοσθένει ὑστερήσαντας διὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ἀπορίαν τῶν χρημάτων οὐ βουλόμενοι δαπανᾶν εὐθὺς ἀπέπεμπον, προστάξαντες κομίσαι αὐτοὺς Διειτρέφει, καὶ εἰπόντες ἅμα ἐν τῷ παράπλῳ (ἐπορεύοντο γὰρ δι᾽ Εὐρίπου） καὶ τοὺς πολεμίους, ἤν τι δύνηται, ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν βλάψαι. [2] ὁ δὲ ἔς τε τὴν Τάναγραν ἀπεβίβασεν αὐτοὺς καὶ ἁρπαγήν τινα ἐποιήσατο διὰ τάχους καὶ ἐκ Χαλκίδος τῆς Εὐβοίας ἀφ᾽ ἑσπέρας διέπλευσε τὸν Εὔριπον καὶ ἀποβιβάσας ἐς τὴν Βοιωτίαν ἦγεν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ Μυκαλησσόν. [3] καὶ τὴν μὲν νύκτα λαθὼν πρὸς τῷ Ἑρμαίῳ ηὐλίσατο（ἀπέχει δὲ τῆς Μυκαλησσοῦ ἑκκαίδεκα μάλιστα σταδίους）, ἅμα δὲ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πόλει προσέκειτο οὔσῃ οὐ μεγάλῃ, καὶ αἱρεῖ ἀφυλάκτοις τε ἐπιπεσὼν καὶ ἀπροσδοκήτοις μὴ ἄν ποτέ τινας σφίσιν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης τοσοῦτον ἐπαναβάντας ἐπιθέσθαι, τοῦ τείχους ἀσθενοῦς ὄντος καὶ ἔστιν ᾗ καὶ πεπτωκότος, τοῦ δὲ βραχέος ᾠκοδομημένου, καὶ πυλῶν ἅμα διὰ τὴν ἄδειαν ἀνεῳγμένων. [4] ἐσπεσόντες δὲ οἱ Θρᾷκες ἐς τὴν Μυκαλησσὸν τάς τε οἰκίας καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ ἐπόρθουν καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐφόνευον φειδόμενοι οὔτε πρεσβυτέρας οὔτε νεωτέρας ἡλικίας, ἀλλὰ πάντας ἑξῆς, ὅτῳ ἐντύχοιεν, καὶ παῖδας καὶ γυναῖκας κτείνοντες, καὶ προσέτι καὶ ὑποζύγια καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ἔμψυχα ἴδοιεν· τὸ γὰρ γένος τὸ τῶν Θρᾳκῶν ὁμοῖα τοῖς μάλιστα τοῦ βαρβαρικοῦ, ἐν ᾧ ἂν θαρσήσῃ, φονικώτατόν ἐστιν. [5] καὶ τότε ἄλλη τε ταραχὴ οὐκ ὀλίγη καὶ ἰδέα πᾶσα καθειστήκει ὀλέθρου, καὶ ἐπιπεσόντες διδασκαλείῳ παίδων, ὅπερ μέγιστον ἦν αὐτόθι καὶ ἄρτι ἔτυχον οἱ παῖδες ἐσεληλυθότες, κατέκοψαν πάντας: καὶ ξυμφορὰ τῇ πόλει πάσῃ οὐδεμιᾶς ἥσσων μᾶλλον ἑτέρας ἀδόκητός τε ἐπέπεσεν αὕτη καὶ δεινή.