[7,7] Οὓς συνεργοὺς καὶ συναγωνιστὰς λαβὼν καὶ ἃ δεήσει πράττειν ἑκάστοις ὑποθέμενος τοῖς τ´ αἰχμαλώτοις, οὓς ἐπήγετο, προῖκα δοὺς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, ἵνα καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων εὔνοιαν προσλάβῃ, κατέπλει κεκοσμημέναις ταῖς ναυσὶν εἰς τοὺς τῶν Κυμαίων λιμένας. οἱ δὲ τῶν στρατευομένων πατέρες τε καὶ μητέρες καὶ πᾶσα ἡ ἄλλη συγγένεια, παιδία τε καὶ γαμεταὶ γυναῖκες, ὑπήντων ἐξιοῦσιν αὐτοῖς μετὰ δακρύων περιπλεκόμενοι καὶ καταφιλοῦντες καὶ ταῖς ἡδίσταις ἕκαστον ἀνακαλούμενοι προσηγορίαις. καὶ ἡ ἄλλη δὲ πληθὺς ἡ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ἅπασα χαρᾷ καὶ κρότῳ δεξιουμένη τὸν ἡγεμόνα προὔπεμπεν εἰς οἶκον ἀπιόντα. ἐφ´ οἷς οἱ προεστηκότες τῆς πόλεως ἀνιώμενοι, μάλιστα δ´ οἱ τὴν στρατηγίαν αὐτῷ παραδόντες καὶ τἆλλα τὰ πρὸς τὸν ὄλεθρον μηχανησάμενοι, πονηροὺς ὑπὲρ τοῦ μέλλοντος εἶχον διαλογισμούς. ὁ δὲ διαλιπὼν ὀλίγας τινὰς ἡμέρας, ἐν αἷς τὰς εὐχὰς ἀπεδίδου τοῖς θεοῖς καὶ τὰς ὑστεριζούσας ὁλκάδας ἀνεδέχετο, ἐπειδὴ καιρὸς ἦν, ἔφη βούλεσθαι τὰ πραχθέντα κατὰ τὸν ἀγῶνα πρὸς τὴν βουλὴν ἀπαγγεῖλαι καὶ τὰ ἐκ τοῦ πολέμου λάφυρα ἀποδεῖξαι. συνελθόντων δὲ τῶν ἐν τέλει κατὰ πλῆθος εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον ὁ μὲν ἐδημηγόρει παρελθὼν καὶ πάντα τὰ γενόμενα κατὰ τὴν μάχην διεξῄει, οἱ δὲ παρασκευασθέντες ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ συνεργοὶ τῆς ἐπιθέσεως ἔχοντες ὑπὸ τοῖς ἱματίοις ξίφη κατὰ πλῆθος εἰσδραμόντες εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον ἀποσφάττουσιν ἅπαντας τοὺς ἀριστοκρατικούς. φυγὴ δ´ ἐγένετο μετὰ τοῦτο τῶν κατ´ ἀγορὰν καὶ δρόμος, τῶν μὲν ἐπὶ τὰς οἰκίας, τῶν δ´ ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, πλὴν τῶν συνειδότων τὴν ἐπίθεσιν· οὗτοι δὲ τὴν ἄκραν καὶ τὰ νεώρια καὶ τοὺς ἐρυμνοὺς τόπους τῆς πόλεως κατελάμβανον. τῇ δ´ ἐπιούσῃ νυκτὶ λύσας ἐκ τῶν δεσμωτηρίων τοὺς ἐπιθανατίους πολλοὺς ὄντας καὶ καθοπλίσας ἅμα τοῖς ἄλλοις φίλοις, ἐν οἷς ἦσαν καὶ οἱ τῶν Τυρρηνῶν αἰχμάλωτοι, φυλακὴν ἐκ τούτων καθίσταται περὶ τὸ σῶμα. ἡμέρας δὲ γενομένης συγκαλέσας τὸν δῆμον εἰς ἐκκλησίαν καὶ πολλὴν κατηγορίαν διαθέμενος τῶν φονευθέντων ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ πολιτῶν, ἐκείνους μὲν ἔφη τετιμωρῆσθαι σὺν δίκῃ πολλάκις ἐπιβουλευθεὶς ὑπ´ αὐτῶν, τοῖς δ´ ἄλλοις πολίταις ἐλευθερίαν φέρων παρεῖναι καὶ ἰσηγορίαν καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ ἀγαθά.

[7,7] After he had secured these men as his assistants and participants with him in the struggle, and had acquainted each one with the part he was to play, and furthermore had set at liberty without ransom all the prisoners he was bringing along, in order to gain their goodwill also, he sailed with his (p165) ships decked out into the harbours of Cumae. When the soldiers disembarked, they were met by their fathers and mothers and all the rest of their kinsmen, their children and their wedded wives, who embraced them with tears and kisses and called each of them by the most endearing terms. And all the other citizens, receiving the general with joy and applause, conducted him to his house. But the chief men of the city, particularly those who had given him the command and concerted the other measures for his destruction, were vexed at these manifestations and felt sinister apprehensions regarding the future. Aristodemus allowed a few days to pass, during which he performed his vows to the gods and waited for the merchantmen that were late in arriving, and then, when the proper time came, he said he desired to give the senate an account of the circumstances of the battle and to show them the spoils taken in the war. Then, the authorities having assembled in great numbers, he came forward and made a speech, in which he related everything that had happened in the battle; and while he was speaking, the accomplices in the plot with whom he had arranged matters rushed into the senate-house in a body with swords under their garments and killed all the members of the aristocracy. Thereupon there ensued a flight of those who were in the forum and a rush of some to their houses and of others away from the city, except of such as were privy to the conspiracy; the latter in mean time captured the citadel, the dockyards, and the strong (p167) places of the city. The following night he released from the prisons all who were under sentence of death, of whom there were many, arming them together with his friends, among whom were the Tyrrhenian prisoners, he formed out of these a bodyguard for himself. When it was day, he assembled the people and after inveighing at length against the citizens who had been put to death by his orders, he said that those men, having often sought his life, had been justly punished by him, but that, as for the rest of the citizens, he had come to give them liberty, equal rights of speech, and many other advantages.