Thus driven to extremity, the Melians surrendered at
discretion. Then the Athenians showed that their threats had not been
idly uttered. All the men of military age in Melos were put to death,
the women and children were sold into slavery, and the land was
distributed among Athenian settlers.
In the fifth year of the war, after the capitulation of Mytilene, a
thousand of the inhabitants had been butchered in cold blood; and this
sentence, which seems so cruel to us, was regarded by the Athenians as
an act of mercy. Six years later, the decree which had originally been
passed against Mytilene, was actually executed on Scione, which had
revolted at the instigation of Brasidas. In this act of savage
retribution, Athens still remained within the limits of Greek
international law, which placed the inhabitants of a revolted city at
the mercy of their conquerors. But the case of Melos was different,
for that island had never been included in the Athenian alliance, and
the Melians had done nothing to provoke an attack. Thus the three
names, Mytilene, Scione, and Melos, mark an ascending scale of
barbarity, culminating in a massacre which, even in the eyes of
Greeks, was an atrocious crime. Athens had now offended beyond
forgiveness, giving colour to the accusations of her worst enemies,
and heaping up vengeance for the days to come.
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