The limestone quarries of Syracuse are still visible. During the period of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians and their allies sent a disastrous naval expedition to Syracuse. Having lost not only the battle, but their fleet, they tried to escape. They failed; instead, large numbers of Athenians suffered miserable deaths in the quarries of Syracuse.
Here is what Thucydides has to say about the conditions of the Greek slaves in the quarries of Syracuse, from the public domain Jowett translation:
"(7.87) Those who were imprisoned in the quarries were at the beginning of their captivity harshly treated by the Syracusans. There were great numbers of them, and they were crowded in a deep and narrow place. At first the sun by day was still scorching and suffocating, for they had no roof over their heads, while the autumn nights were cold, and the extremes of temperature engendered violent disorders. Being cramped for room they had to do everything on the same spot. The corpses of those who died from their wounds, exposure to heat and cold, and the like, lay heaped one upon another. The smells were intolerable; and they were at the same time afflicted by hunger and thirst. During eight months they were allowed only about half a pint of water and a pint of food a day. Every kind of misery which could befall man in such a place befell them. This was the condition of all the captives for about ten weeks. At length the Syracusans sold them, with the exception of the Athenians and of any Sicilian or Italian Greeks who had sided with them in the war. The whole number of the public prisoners is not accurately known, but they were not less than seven thousand."
Picture: CC Flickr User Alun Salt.
