Among the other calamities that befell the city, it happened that some
Thracian soldiers, having broken into the house of a matron of high character
and repute, named Timoclea, their captain, after he had used violence with
her, to satisfy his avarice as well as lust, asked her, if she knew of
any money concealed; to which she readily answered she did, and bade him
follow her into a garden, where she showed him a well, into which, she
told him, upon the taking of the city, she had thrown what she had of most
value. The greedy Thracian presently stooping down to view the place where
he thought the treasure lay, she came behind him and pushed him into the
well, and then flung great stones in upon him, till she had killed him.
After which, when the soldiers led her away bound to Alexander, her very
mien and gait showed her to be a woman of dignity, and of a mind no less
elevated, not betraying the least sign of fear or astonishment. And when
the king asked her who she was, "I am," said she, "the sister
of Theagenes, who fought the battle of Chaeronea with your father Philip,
and fell there in command for the liberty of Greece." Alexander was
so surprised, both at what she had done and what she said, that he could
not choose but give her and her children their freedom to go whither they
pleased.
Timoclea
, Plutarch