47.
The friends of the captives persuaded a few of them, and the vessel was provided. The1 prisoners were taken sailing out; the truce was at an end, and they were all instantly delivered up to the Corcyraeans.
[2]
The feeling which the Athenian generals displayed greatly contributed to the result; for, being compelled to proceed to Sicily themselves, they were well known to wish that no one else should gain the credit of bringing the prisoners to Athens;2 and therefore the agreement was interpreted to the letter,3 and the contrivers of the trick thought that they could execute it with impunity.
[3]
The Corcyraeans took the prisoners and shut them up in a large building; then, leading them out in bands of twenty at a time, they made them pass between two files of armed men; they were bound to one another and struck and pierced by the men on each side, whenever any one saw among them an enemy of his own; and there were men with whips, who accompanied them to the place of execution and quickened the steps of those who lingered.
1 The captive oligarchs are induced by a trick to break their parole and are delivered up to the vengeance of the Corcyraeans.
2 or, ' and so the pretext turned out to be the exact truth; ' or, and so the pretext seemed to correspond to the facts.'
3 or, ' and so the pretext turned out to be the exact truth; ' or, and so the pretext seemed to correspond to the facts.'
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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