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The despot, however, was not moved even by things like this, but he made away with many, and forced even more into exile. At any rate, it is said that eight hundred men fled for safety to the Aetolians, asking for rescue of their wives and youngest children from the despot. A little later he himself caused proclamation to be made that the women who wished might go away to their husbands, taking along as much as they wished of their feminine possessions. When he learned that they all received the proclamation with gladness (and their number was over six hundred), he issued orders that all should proceed in a company on a specified day, as if purposing himself to assure their safety. When the day arrived, the women gathered at the gates with their possessions which they had packed up, and some of their children they carried in their arms, and others they had in wagons, and they were waiting there for one another. Suddenly many of the despot’s men bore down upon them, calling out to them, while still a long way off, to wait. And when these came near, they ordered the women to move back, and then turned the teams about and rode them at the women, driving them through their midst mercilessly, and giving the women no chance either to follow or to stay or to come to the help of their little ones who were being killed, some of whom perished by being thrown from the wagons, others by falling under foot. The mercenaries urged them on like a flock of sheep, with shouts and whips, while the women tripped over one another, until the soldiers had cast them all into prison. Their possessions were carried off to Aristotimus.
