from this Marcellus was not averse; for the Romans, even at that time, were desirous of procuring the friendship of the Etolians, with which nation the Lacedæmonians were in alliance. Some persons were accordingly deputed to treat for his release, and the place judged the most central and convenient to both parties was at the Trogilian port, adjoining the tower called Galeagra. As they came several times to this spot, one of the Romans, having a near view of the wall, by reckoning the stones, and estimating, as far as he was able, the measure of each in the face of the work, conjectured nearly as to its height, and finding it considerably lower than he or any of the rest had hitherto supposed, so that it might be scaled with ladders of even a moderate length, he represented the matter to Marcellus. The information was deemed not unworthy of attention, but as that spot could not be openly approached, being, for the very reason mentioned, guarded with particular care, it was determined to watch for a favourable opportunity: this was soon found, through the means of a deserter, who brought intelligence that the besieged were celebrating the festival of Diana, which was to last three days; and as, in consequence of the siege, most kinds of provisions were scarce, they indulged themselves in greater quantities of wine, which Epicydes supplied to the whole body of the plebeians, and which was distributed among the tribes by the people of distinction. Marcellus, on hearing this, communicated his design to a few military tribunes; and having, by their means, selected centurions and soldiers properly qualified for an enterprise at once important and daring, he privately procured scaling ladders, and ordered directions to be conveyed to the rest of the troops, that they should take their suppers early, and go to rest, because they were to be employed on an expedition in the night. Then, at the hour when he judged that the people, who had begun to feast early in the day, would be surfeited with wine, and begin to sleep, he ordered the

men of one company to proceed with their ladders, while about a thousand men in arms were with silence conducted in a slender column to the spot. The foremost having, without noise or tumult, mounted the wall, the rest followed in order, the boldness of the former giving courage even to the timorous.

XXIV. This body of a thousand men had now gained possession of a part of the city, when the rest, bringing up greater numbers of ladders, scaled the wall; the first party having given them a signal from the Hexapylos, to which they had penetrated without meeting a single person in the streets: for the greater part of the townsmen having feasted together in the towers, were now either overpowered by wine, and sunk in sleep, or, being half inebriated, still continued their debauch. A few of them, however, who were surprised in their beds, were put to death. Vigorous efforts were then made to force open a postern gate near the Hexapylos, and at the same time, the signal agreed on was returned from the wall by a trumpet. And now the attack was carried on in all quarters, not secretly, but with open force; for they had reached the Epipola, where there were great numbers of the guards stationed, and it became requisite not to elude the notice of the enemy, but to terrify them; and terrified they were: for as soon as the sound of the trumpet was heard, and the shouts of the troops who had mastered part of the city, the guards thought that the whole was taken, and some of them fled along the wall, others leaped down from the ramparts, and crowds flying in dismay, were tumbled headlong. A great part of the townsmen, however, were still ignorant of the misfortune which had befallen them, being all of them overpowered with wine and sleep; and in a city of such vast extent, what happened in any one quarter, could not be very readily known in all the rest. A little before day, a gate of the Hexapylos being forced, Marcellus, with all his troops, entered the city. This roused the townsmen, who betook

themselves to arms, endeavouring, if possible, to preserve the place. Epicides hastily led out some troops from the island called Nasos, not doubting but he should be able to drive out what he conjectured to be a small party, and which he supposed had found entrance through the negligence of the guards, telling the affrighted fugitives whom he met, that they were adding to the tumult, and that they represented matters greater and more terrible than they were. But when he saw every place round the Epipola filled with armed men, he waited only to discharge a few missive weapons, and marched back into the Achradina, dreading not so much the number and strength of the enemy, as that some treachery might, on such an opportunity, take place within, and that he might find the gates of the Achridina and the island shut against him. When Marcellus entered the gate, and had from the high grounds a full view of the city, the most beautiful perhaps of any in those times, he is said to have shed tears partly out of joy at having accomplished an enterprise of such importance, and partly from the sensations excited by reflecting on the high degree of renown which the place had enjoyed through a long series of years. Memory represented to him the Athenian fleet sunk there; two vast armies cut off with two generals of the highest reputation; the many wars maintained against the Carthaginians with such equality of success; the great number of powerful tyrants and kings, especially Hiero, whom all remembered very lately reigning, and who besides all the distinctions which his own merit and good fortune conferred on him, was highly remarkable for his zealous friendship to the Roman people: when all these reflections occurred to his mind, and were followed by the consideration, that every object then under his view would quickly be in flames, and reduced to ashes, thus reflecting, before he advanced to attack the Achridina, he sent forward some Syracusans, who, as has been mentioned, were within the Roman quarters, to try if

they could, by mild persuasions, prevail on the Syracusans to surrender the town.

XXV. The fortifications of the Achradina were occupied by deserters, who could have no hope of a pardon in case of a capitulation; these, therefore, would not suffer the others to come.nigh the walls, nor to hold conversation with any one. Marcellus, finding that no opportunity could offer of effecting any thing by persuasion, ordered his troops to move back to the Euryalus. This is an eminence at the verge of the city, on the side most remote from the sea, commanding the road which leads into the country and the interior parts of the island, and therefore very commodiously situate for securing admittance to convoys of provisions. The commander of this fortress was Philodemus, an Argive, stationed here by Epicydes. To him Sosis, one of the regicides, was sent by Marcellus with certain propositions; who, after a long conversation, being put off with evasions, brought back an account that the Argive required time for deliberation. He deferred giving any positive answer from day to day, in expectation that Hippocrates and Himilco, with their legions, would come up; and he doubted not that if he could once receive them into the fortress, the Roman army hemmed in as it was within walls, might be effectually cut off. Marcellus, therefore, seeing no probability of the Euryalus being either surrendered or taken, encamped between Neapolis and Tycha, parts of the city so named, and in themselves equal to cities; for he feared, lest, if he went into the more populous parts, the greedy soldiers might not, by any means, be restrained from pillaging. Hither came deputies from the Neapolis and the Tycha, with fillets and other badges of supplicants, praying him to spare the lives of the inhabitants, and to refrain from burning their houses. On the subject of these petitions, offered in the form of prayers rather than of demands, Marcellus held a council; and according to the unanimous determination of all present, published orders to

the soldiers, to "offer no viclence to any person of free condition, but that they might sieze every thing else as spoil." The walls of the houses surrounding his camp served it as a fortification, and, at the gates facing the wide streets, he posted guards and detachments of troops, to prevent any attack on it while the soldiers should be in search of plunder. On a signal given the men dispersed themselves for that purpose: and, though they broke open doors, and filled every place with terror and tumult, yet they refrained from bloodshed, but put no stop to their ravages, until they had removed all the valuable effects which had been amassed there in a long course of prosperous fortune. Meanwhile Philodemus, seeing no prospect of relief, and receiving assurances that he might return to Epicydes in safety, withdrew the garrison, and delivered up the fortress to the Romans. While the attention of all was turned to the commotion in that part of the city which was taken, Bomilcar, taking advantage of a stormy night, when the violence of the weather would not allow the Roman fleet to ride at anchor in the deep, slipped out of the harbour of Syracuse with thirty-five ships, and finding the sea open, sailed forth into the main, leaving fifty-five ships to Epicydes and the Syracusans. After informing the Carthaginians of the perilous state of affairs in Syracuse, he returned thither, in a few days, with an hundred ships, when he received, as is said, many valuable presents from Epicydes out of the treasure of Hiero.

XXVI. Marcellus by gaining possession of the Euryalus, and putting a garrison into it, was freed from one cause of anxiety; for he had apprehended that a body of the enemy's forces might get into that fortress on his rear, and thence annoy his troops, pent up as they were, and entangled among walls. He then invested the Achradina, forming three camps in proper situations, in hopes, by a close blockade, of reducing it by a want of necessaries. The out-guards on both sides, had been quiet for several days, when Hippocrates and VOL. III.-O o