selves, with what
native Sicilians had joined them, should be confined in the stone
quarries within the city of Syracuse, and that their generals should
be put to death.

These propositions wore accepted by the Syracusans, who treated
Hermokrates with contempt when he urged that to be merciful in victory
would be more honourable to them than the victory itself. Gylippus
too, when he begged that he might carry the Athenian generals alive to
Sparta, was shamefully insulted by the excited Syracusans, who had
long disliked the irritating Spartan airs of superiority natural to
Gylippus, and now, flushed with victory, no longer cared to conceal
their feelings. Timaeus tells us that they accused him of avarice and
peculation, a hereditary vice, it appears, in his family since his
father Kleandrides was banished from Sparta for taking bribes, while
he himself afterwards stole thirty of the hundred talents which
Lysander sent home to Sparta, and hid them under the roof of his
house, but was informed against, and exiled in disgrace. This will be
found described at greater length in the Life of Lysander.

In his account of the death of Nikias and Demosthenes, Timaeus does not
exactly follow the narrative of Thucydides and Philistus, as he
informs us that while the assembly was still sitting, Hermokrates sent
to their prison to inform them that they were condemned to death, and
to afford them the means of dying by their own hands, while the other
historians state that the Syracusans put them to death.[4] Be this as
it may, their dead bodies were exposed before the gates of Syracuse as
a spectacle for the citizens. I have heard also that at the present
day a shield is shown in one of the temples at Syracuse, which is said
to be that of Nikias, and which is beautifully adorned with woven
coverings of purple and gold.

XXIX. Of the Athenians, the most part perished in the stone quarries
of disease and insufficient food, for they received only a pint of
barley-meal and half-a-pint of water each day. Not a few, however,
were sold into slavery, being stolen for that purpose by Syracusans,
or having escaped disguised as slaves. The rest were at length branded
upon their foreheads with the figure of a horse, and sold into
slavery. Yet even in this extremity their well-bred and dignified
behaviour came to their aid; for they soon either obtained their
freedom, or gained the confidence and respect of their masters. Some
gained their free