36.
Alexamenus with all the Aetolians went off at full speed to take possession of the palace.
[
2]
The bodyguard, since the deed had been done before their eyes, was at first terror-stricken;
[
3]
then, after they saw the Aetolian column depart, they assembled around the abandoned body of the tyrant, and a crowd of spectators was formed out of the guardians of his life and the avengers of his death.
[
4]
Nor would anyone have stirred if the multitude had at once been summoned to lay aside their arms and attend an assembly and a speech been delivered suitable to the occasion, and thenceforth numerous Aetolians been kept under arms, without doing injury to anyone; but, as was fitting in plans undertaken with treachery, everything worked together to hasten the destruction of those who had committed the crime.
[
5]
Their leader shut himself up in the palace and spent a day and a night.
[
6]
in going through the tyrant's treasures; the Aetolians, as if they had captured the city which they wished to seem to have set free, turned to plunder. Their shameless conduct and the contempt in which they were held combined to turn the thoughts of the Lacedaemonians towards unity of action.
[
7]
Some said that the Aetolians should be driven out and the liberty, lost at the moment when it seemed restored, should be regained; others, that there might be some head to the movement, thought that someone of the royal house should be brought forward as a symbol.
[
8]
There was a mere boy of the royal stock,
[p. 111]Laconicus,
1 brought up with the sons of the tyrant;
2 him they set upon a horse, and seizing their weapons they slaughtered the Aetolians as they straggled through the city. Next they attacked the palace.
[
9]
Alexamenus with a few companions resisted them there but was slain. The Aetolians gathered around the Chalcioecus
3 —this was a bronze temple to Minerva —were killed;
[
10]
a few threw away their arms and fled, some to Tegea, some to Megalopolis; there they were arrested by the magistrates and sold at auction.
4