History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides. The history of the Peloponnesian War, Volume 1-2. Dale, Henry, translator. London: Heinemann and Henry G. Bohn, 1851-1852.

Of the Plataeans themselves they slew not less than two hundred, and of the Athenians twenty-five, who were besieged with them;

the women they sold as slaves. As for the city, the Thebans gave it for about a year to some of the Megareans to inhabit, who had been banished by party influence, and to such of the Plataeans on their own side as still survived. Afterwards they razed the whole of it to the ground, from the very foundations, and built to the sacred precinct of Juno an inn two hundred feet square, with rooms all round, above and below, making use of the roofs and doors of the Plataeans; and with the rest of the furniture, in brass and iron, that was [*]( Or, as Bloomfield and Göller render it, whatever movable materials there were in the wall; referring to the metal cramps by which the copingstones were fastened. But though lead and iron are mentioned as having been used for that purpose, (see I. p. 93. 6,) they do not bring forward any instance of brass having been used with them; nor does it seem probable that such would be the case. I have therefore followed Poppo, Haack, and others, in supposing, that as the wood work in the new building was taker from the houses in the town, a similar use was made of the iron and bras, implements, which must also surely have been found there. At least it is very difficult to imagine, with Göller, that they had been all used up by the garrison during the siege. And instead of the opposition which he says is intended between the wood in the houses and the metal in the wall, the use of the ἄλλοις appears rather to imply that the rafters, doors, and metal implements were all taken from the same quarter.) within the wall, they made couches and dedicated them to Juno, building also in her honour a stone chapel of one hundred feet square. The land they confiscated, and let out for ten years, its occupiers being Thebans.