Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/15

all the reſt baniſhed; the Corinthians killed 120, baniſhed 500; Phæbidas baniſhed 300 Bœotians. Upon the fall of the Lacedæmonians, democracies were reſtored in many cities, and ſevere vengeance taken of the nobles: the baniſhed nobles returning, butchered their adverſaries at Phialæ, in Corinth, in Megara, in Phliaſia, where they killed 300 of the people; but theſe again revolting, killed above 600 of the nobles, and baniſhed the reſt. In Arcadia, 1400 baniſhed, beſides many killed: the baniſhed retired to Sparta and Pallantium; the latter were delivered up to their countrymen, and all killed. Of the baniſhed from Argos and Thebes, there were 509 in the Spartan army. The people, before the uſurpation of Agathocles, had baniſhed 600 nobles; afterwards that tyrant, in concurrence with the people, killed 4000 nobles, and baniſhed 6000; and killed 4000 people at Gela: his brother baniſhed 8000 from Syracuſe. The inhabitants of Ægeſta, to the number of 40,000, were killed, man, woman, and child, for the ſake of their money: all the relations of the Libyan army, fathers, brothers, children, killed: 7000 exiles killed after capitulation. Theſe numbers, compared with the population of thoſe cities, are prodigious; yet Agathocles was a man of character, and not to be ſuſpected of cruelty, contrary to the maxims of his age: ſuch were the faſhionable outrages of unbalanced parties.

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