Those whom they caught in the daytime were slain in the night, and then their bodies were carried out and thrown away, that there might be room for other prisoners and the terror that was upon the people was so great, that no one had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead man that was related to him, or to bury him; but those that were shut up in their own houses could only shed tears in secret, and durst not even groan without great caution, lest any of their enemies should hear them for if they did, those that mourned for others soon underwent the same death with those whom they mourned for. Only in the nighttime they would take up a little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and even some that were the most ready to expose themselves to danger would do it in the daytime and there were twelve thousand of the better sort who perished in this manner.

When their friends wanted to bury them but were altogether unable to know them apart as they had been completely crushed, the story goes that Simo-nides was enabled by his recollection of the place in which each of them had been reclining at table to identify them for separate interment.