ght miles from Thebes, and their march
delayed by the rain that had fallen in the night, for the river Asopus
had risen and was not easy of passage; and so, having to march in the
rain, and being hindered in crossing the river, they arrived too late,
and found the whole party either slain or captive. When they learned
what had happened, they at once formed a design against the Plataeans
outside the city. As the attack had been made in time of peace, and was
perfectly unexpected, there were of course men and stock in the fields;
and the Thebans wished if possible to have some prisoners to exchange
against their countrymen in the town, should any chance to have been
taken alive. Such was their plan. But the Plataeans suspected their
intention almost before it was formed, and becoming alarmed for
their fellow citizens outside the town, sent a herald to the Thebans,
reproaching them for their unscrupulous attempt to seize their city in
time of peace, and warning them against any outrage on those outside.
Should the warning be disregarded, they threatened to put to death the
men they had in their hands, but added that, on the Thebans retiring
from their territory, they would surrender the prisoners to their
friends. This is the Theban account of the matter, and they say that
they had an oath given them. The Plataeans, on the other hand, do not
admit any promise of an immediate surrender, but make it contingent upon
subsequent negotiation: the oath they deny altogether. Be this as it
may, upon the Thebans retiring from their territory without committing
any injury, the Plataeans hastily got in whatever they had in the
country and immediately put the men to death. The prisoners were a
hundred and eighty in number; Eurymachus, the person with whom the
traitors had negotiated, being one.

This done, the Plataeans sent a messenger to Athens, gave back the dead
to the Thebans under a truce, and arranged things in the city as seemed
best to meet the present emergency. The Athenians meanwhile, having
had word of the affair sent them immediately after its occurrence, had
instantly seized all the Boeotians in Attica, and sent a herald to the
Plataeans to forbid their proceeding to extremities with their Theban
prisoners without instructions from Athens. The news of the men's death
had of course not arrived; the first messenger having left Plataea just
when the Thebans entered it, the second just after their defeat and
capture; so ther