orrespondence with them, he immediately marched through the pass
of Thermopylae, saying that to Demosthenes, who had called him a child
while he was in Illyria, and a youth when he was in Thessaly, he would
appear a man before the walls of Athens.

When he came to Thebes, to show how willing he was to accept of their
repentance for what was past, he only demanded of them Phoenix and
Prothytes, the authors of the rebellion, and proclaimed a general
pardon to those who would come over to him. But when the Thebans merely
retorted by demanding Philotas and Antipater to be delivered into their
hands, he applied himself to make them feel the last extremities of war.
The Thebans defended themselves with a zeal and courage beyond their
strength, being much outnumbered by their enemies. But when the
Macedonian garrison sallied out upon them from the citadel, they were
so hemmed in on all sides, that the greater part of them fell in the
battle; the city itself being taken by storm, was sacked and razed,
Alexander's hope being that so severe an example might terrify the rest
of Greece into obedience. So that, except the priests, and a few who
had heretofore been the friends and connections of the Macedonians, the
family of the poet Pindar, and those who were known to have opposed the
public vote for the war, all the rest, to the number of thirty thousand,
were publicly sold for slaves; and it is computed that upwards of six
thousand were put to the sword. Among the other calamities that befell
the city, it happened that some Thracian soldiers having broken into
the house of a matron of high character and repute named Timoclea, their
captain, to satisfy his avarice, asked her if she knew of any money
concealed; to which she readily answered that she did, and bade him
follow her into a garden, where she showed him a well, into which, she
told him, upon the taking of the city she had thrown what she had of
most value. The greedy Thracian presently stooping down to view the
place where he thought the treasure lay, she came behind him, and pushed
him into the well, and then flung great stones in upon him, till she
had killed him. After which, when the soldiers led her away bound to
Alexander, her very mien and gait showed her to be a woman of dignity
and high mind, not betraying the least sign of fear or astonishment.
And when the king asked her who she was, she said, "I am the sister
of Theagenes, who fought at the battle of Chaeronea