History of the Peloponnesian War

The majority of the suppliants, who had not been prevailed on by them, when they saw what was being done, slew one another there on the sacred ground; while some hanged themselves on the trees, and others destroyed themselves as they severally could.

During seven days that Eurymedon stayed after his arrival with his sixty ships, the Corcyraeans were butchering those of their countrymen whom they thought hostile to them; bringing their accusations, indeed, against those only who were for putting down the democracy; but some were slain for private enmity also, and others for money owed 'them by those who had borrowed it. Every mode of death was thus had recourse to;

and whatever ordinarily happens in such a state of things, all happened then, and still more For father murdered son, and they were dragged out of the sanctuaries, or slain in them; while in that of Bacchus some were walled up and perished. So savagely did the sedition proceed; while it appeared to do so all the more from its being amongst the earliest.

For afterwards, even the whole of Greece, so to say, was convulsed; struggles being every where made by the popular leaders to call in the Athenians, by the oligarchical party, the Lacedaemonians. [*]( Here, as in I. 36. 3, the participle and the finite verb are made to answer to each other, οὐκ ἄν ἐχόντων—ἐπορίζοντο, whereas it should have been either οὐκ ἄν εἶχον πρόφασιν—ἐπορίζοντο, or οὐκ ἄν ἐχόντων—τῶνἐπαγωγῶν ποριζομένων. —Arnold. The only way to avoid this confusion of constructions would be to understand ἐχόντων and ἑτοίμων again after πολεμουμένων. And as they would have had no pretext for calling them in, nor have been prepared to do it, in time of peace, but were so in time of war,—occasions of inviting them were easily supplied, when this war had broken out. But from the fact of no commentator (so far as I am aware) having adopted this method, there are probably greater objections to it than, I confess, present themselves to my own mind.) Now they would have had no pretext for calling them in, nor have been prepared to do so, in time of peace. But when pressed by war, and when an alliance also was maintained by both parties for the injury of their opponents and for their own gain therefrom, occasions of inviting them were easily supplied to such as wished to effect any revolution.

And many dreadful things befell the cities through this sedition, which occur, and will always do so, as long as human nature is the same, but [*]( For a similar use of μᾶλλον compare IV. 19. 7, εἴτε καὶ ἐκπολιορκηθέντες μᾶλλον ἂν χειρωθεῖεν) in a more violent or milder form, and varying in their phenomena, as the several variations of circumstances may in each case present themselves. For in peace and prosperity both communities and individuals have better feelings, through not falling into [*]( Literally compulsory, i. e. which compells a man to do what he would otherwise not think of.) urgent needs; whereas war, by taking away the free supply of daily wants is a violent master, and assimilates most men's tempers to their present condition, The states ten were thus torn by sedition, and the later instances of it in any part, from having heard what had been done before, exhibited largely an excessive refinement of ideas, both in the eminent cunning of their plans, and the monstrous cruelty of their vengeance.