History of the Peloponnesian War

​As for those in the stone quarries, the Syracusans treated them harshly in the first period. For, being in a hollow and narrow place, they were first distressed by the heat of the sun and the stifling air, which was worse because there was no roof, and then the nights that followed, being on the contrary autumnal and cold, by their sudden change brought them to sickness. ​And since because of the narrow space they did everything in the same place, and moreover the dead bodies of those who died from their wounds and because of the change of weather and such things were piled up one upon another, the smell was unbearable; at the same time they were tormented by hunger and thirst (for during eight months they gave to each of them only a kotyle of water and two kotyles of grain daily). Indeed, of all the other miseries which are likely to befall men cast into such a place, there was nothing that did not come upon them.

​For some seventy days they lived all together in this manner; then, except for the Athenians and any of the Siceliots or Italiots who had joined the expedition, they sold the rest.

​The total number of those taken, though it is difficult to state with accuracy, was nevertheless not less than seven thousand.

​This event proved to be the greatest of those in this war, and in my opinion, even of all the Greek events we know of by hearsay, being most glorious to the victors and most disastrous to the ruined.

​For having been utterly defeated in every way and having suffered in no small measure in any respect, they were, in the common phrase, completely destroyed—both infantry and ships and everything was lost—and only a few out of many returned home. Such were the events that took place in Sicily.