[ '9 ] 



themfclres, by voluntary death, from the rage of their enemies. 

 The Spartans and Athenians, mutually aflifting the parties with 

 which they were conneded, prolonged the fatal ftruggle. At laft 

 the popular party decidedly prevailed, and, having got the whole 

 body of their opponents into their power, threw them into a dun- 

 geon. From thence thefe unhappy people were dragged, in parties 

 of twenty at a time, and compelled to pafs in pairs, their hands 

 tied behind their backs, through two ranks of their enemies, armed 

 with whips, prongs, and every inftrument of difgraceful torture. 

 Thofe who remained in prifon were a long time ignorant of the 

 fate of their companions ; but when they learned what was tranf- 

 adled without, they refufed to quit their confinement, guarded the 

 entrance, and, with one voice, called on the Athenians to kill 

 them. Even this kind cruelty the Athenians refufed to their 

 prayers. The populace mounted the prifon walls, uncovered the 

 roof, and overwhelmed thofe below with ftones, darts and arrows. 



Yet even this eventful fcene of horrors we (hall fee furpafled, 



by the magnitude of the tragedy, the cruelty of the vidors, and 



the acute and varied mifery of the vanquifhed, when we turn to 



Thucydides* , and perufe his account of the difaftrous clofe of the 



Athenian enterprife againft Syracufe ; an account which no perfon 



of fenfibility can read without a tear. I might multiply inftances, 



without end ; but the foregoing, furely, may juftify my affertion,^ 



that a fanguinary feverity prevailed in the national charader of 



the Greeks. 



(C 2) I AM 



* Lib. 7. 



