24.
From the ditch the Plataeans, leaving on the right hand the shrine of Androcrates, ran
all1 together along the road to Thebes.
They made sure that no one would ever suspect them of having fled in the direction of
their enemies.
On their way they saw the Peloponnesians pursuing them with torches on the road which
leads to Athens by Cithaeron and Dryoscephalae.
[2]
For nearly a mile the Plataeans continued on the Theban road; they then turned off and
went by the way up the mountain leading to Erythrae and Hysiae, and so, getting to the
hills, they escaped to Athens.
Their number was two hundred and twelve2, though they had been originally more, for some of them went back to the city
and never got over the wall; one who was an archer was taken at the outer ditch.
[3]
The Peloponnesians at length gave up the pursuit and returned to their lines.
But the Plataeans in the city, knowing nothing of what had happened, for those who had
turned back had informed them that not one was left alive, sent out a herald at
daybreak, wanting to make a truce for the burial of the dead; they then discovered the
truth and returned.
Thus the Plataeans scaled the wall and escaped.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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