History of the Peloponnesian War

The rest of the Thebans, who were to have joined them with all their forces while it was still night, in case those who had entered should be at all unsuccessful, on receiving on their march the tidings of what had happened, advanced to their succour.

Now Plataea is seventy stades distant from Thebes, and the rain which had fallen in the night made them proceed the slower; for the river Asopus was flowing with a full stream, and was not to be crossed easily.

So by marching through the rain, and having passed the river with difficulty, they arrived too late; as some of the men had been by this time slain, and others of them were kept alive as prisoners.

When the Thebans learned what had happened, they formed a design against those of the Plataeans who were outside the city, (for there were both men and stock in the fields, inasmuch as the evil had happened unexpectedly in time of peace,) for they wished to have all they could take to exchange for their own men within, should any happen to have been taken alive. Such were their plans.

But the Plataeans, while they were still deliberating, having suspected that there would be something of this kind, and being alarmed for those outside, sent out a herald to the Thebans, saying that they had not acted justly in what had been done, by endeavouring to seize their city in time of treaty; and told them not to injure what was without; else they also would put to death the men whom they had alive in their hands; but if they withdrew again from the territory, they would give the men back to them.

The Thebans give this account of the matter, and say that they swore to it. But the Plataeans do not acknowledge that they promised to give back the men immediately, but when proposals had first been made, in case of their coming to any agreement: and they deny that they wore to it. [*]( i. e. whichever of the two different statements was the more correct one. Such I think is generally the meaning of δ᾽ οὖν; and I doubt whether it has not this force, I. 3. 5. οἱ δ᾽ οὖν ὡς ἕκαστοι ῞ελληνες, κ. τ. λ. Whatever truth there may be in the theory just stated, certainly the Greeks did nothing in one united body, etc. Thus it approaches more nearly in signification to γοῦν than to the simple οὖν, with which it generally seems to be regarded as synonymous. The tragedians very frequently use it in this manner. In other passages, however, it has the proper force of each particle, and accordingly. )

At any rate the Thebans retired from the territory without having done any injury; but the Plataeans, after getting in as quickly as possible whatever they had in the country, immediately put the men to death. Those who had been taken were one hundred and eighty, and Eurymachus, with whom the traitors had negotiated, was one of them.