The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books by Livy

Author:Livy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Rome -- History
Published: 2013-11-30T08:00:00+00:00

63 The news of this cavalry action spread through Greece, produced a discovery of the wishes of the people. For not only those who professed an attachment to the Macedonians, but the generality, who were bound to the Romans under the weightiest obligations, and some who had even felt the power and haughty behaviour of the Macedonians, received the account with joy; and that for no other cause, than out of an evil passion which the mob displays, even in contests of sports, of favouring the worse and weaker party. Meanwhile, in Bœotia, the prætor, Lucretius, pushed the siege of Haliartus with all imaginable vigour. And although the besieged had no foreign aid, except some young Coronæans, who had come into the town at the beginning of the siege, and were without hope of relief, yet they maintained the defence with courage beyond their strength. For they made frequent irruptions against the works; and when the ram was applied, they crushed it to the ground, by dropping on it a mass of lead; and whenever those who worked the engine avoided the blow by changing its position, the besieged by working in masses, and collecting stones out of the rubbish, quickly erected a new wall in the room of that which had been demolished. The prætor, when the progress by machines was too slow, ordered scaling-ladders to be distributed among the companies, resolving to make a general assault on the walls. He thought the number of his men sufficient for this, and the more so because on one side of the city, which is bounded by a morass, it would neither be useful nor practicable to form an attack. Lucretius himself led two thousand chosen men to a place where two towers, and the wall between them, had been thrown down; hoping that, while he endeavoured to climb over the ruins, and the townsmen crowded thither to oppose him, the walls, being left defenceless, in some part or other might be taken by escalade. The besieged were not remiss in preparing to repel his assault; for, on the ground, overspread with the rubbish, they placed faggots of dry bushes, and standing with burning torches in their hands, they often threatened to set them on fire, in order that, being covered from the enemy by the smoke and flames, they might have time to throw up a wall in the inside. But a casualty prevented this plan from succeeding; for there fell suddenly such a quantity of rain, as hindered the faggots from being kindled; thus a passage was laid open by drawing the smoking faggots aside; and while all were attending to the defence of one particular spot, the walls were mounted by escalade in many places at once. In the first tumult of storming the town the old men and children, whom chance threw in the way, were put to the sword indiscriminately, while the men who carried arms fled into the citadel. Next day, these, having no remaining hope, surrendered, and were sold by public auction.

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