Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

MASSACRE OF THEBES. 215by their success, in regular phalangial order, he drove themback into the gates and entered with them. A sally from theCadmaean garrison was made at the same moment towardsthe temple of Amphion, The walls were swept by a forcetaking their defenders in flaidi right and left, and were captured.Connection with the garrison of the Cadmiua wasreestablished. A stand was attempted by the Thebans in themarket-place as well as opposite the temple of Amphion, butAlexander's phalanxes quickly routed the few who awaitedtheir onset.The Theban cavalry fled from the city, while the infantrydispersed wherever it could tind an outlet, fighting for theirlives in isolated bodies, but bravely as of yore. Numberswere slaughtered, more by the Boeotians, Phocians, and Platseansthan by the Macedonians, who, says Curtius, did notjoin in the massacre. For the former had an old score to settlewith Thebes for many years' oppressions. Even womenand children did not escape. Nor was house or temple oraltar a protection. There fell that day five hundred Macedonians.Adding the wounded, this was a loss of about seventeenper cent., — a high average. Six thousand Thebanswere slain ; thirty thousand were sold into slavery. Theselatter are said to have brought about five hundred and thirtyfivethousand dollars, not quite eighteen dollars each. Thisis an interesting gauge of values at that time, though thenumber probably glutted the market. In later days Alexanderrepented of the cruelty perpetrated at Thebes, believingthat he had offended Bacchus, its tutelary deity, who thereforelooked with unfavoring eyes upon some of his subsequentexploits.The celerity and power of Alexander's blow made a deepimpression throughout Greece. Athens was in no conditionto oppose the conqueror. Sparta was amazed to see the city