History of the Peloponnesian War

And twice or three times they repulsed them; then when the Plataeans charged upon them with a great uproar, and at the same time the women and slaves on the house-tops, uttering screams and yells, kept pelting them with stones and tiles—a heavy rain too had come on during the night—they became panic-stricken and turned and fled through the city; and since most of them were unfamiliar with the thoroughfares by which they must save themselves amid the darkness and mud—for these things happened at the end of the month[*](When there would be no moon.)--, whereas their pursuers knew full well how to prevent their escape, many of them consequently perished.

One of the Plataeans, moreover, had closed the gates by which they had entered--the only gates which had been opened--using the spike of a javelin instead of a pin to fasten the bar, so that there was no longer a way out in that direction either.

And being pursued up and down the city, some of them mounted the wall and threw themselves over, most of these perishing; others succeeded in getting out by an unguarded gate without being observed, cutting through the bar with an axe which a woman gave them—but not many, for they were soon discovered; and others got isolated in various parts of the city and were put to death.

But the greater number, those who had kept more together than the others, rushed into a large building abutting upon[*](Or, as most MSS. read, a large building . . . whose doors near by happened to be open; with Didot and Haase, a large building near the wall whose doors ... ) the wall whose doors happened to be open, thinking that the doors of the building were city-gates and that there was a passage right through to the outside.