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After suspending the operations at midnight the consul recommenced the assault at the fourth watch with extreme violence on three sides. [2] On the fourth side he ordered Tiberius Sempronius to keep his soldiers on the alert and ready for the signal, as he felt no doubt that the Aetolians would in the nocturnal confusion rush to the places from which the battle-shout arose. [3] Some of the Aetolians were asleep, worn out by toil and want of rest, and only roused themselves with great difficulty; those who were still awake, hearing the noise of battle, ran towards it through the darkness. [4] The assailants were trying to climb over the fallen parts of the wall into the city, others were endeavouring to mount the walls by scaling ladders, and the Aetolians were hurrying up from all parts to meet the attack. [5] The one quarter where the suburban buildings stood was so far neither attacked nor guarded, but those who were to attack it were eagerly awaiting the signal and none were there to defend it. [6] It was already dawn when the consul gave the signal and they penetrated into the city without any opposition, some over the ruined walls, others, where the walls were intact, by means of scaling ladders. [7] As soon as the shouting was heard which announced that the city was captured the Aetolians left their posts and fled to the citadel. The consul gave his victorious troops leave to sack the city, not as an act of vengeance, but in order that the soldiery who had been forbidden this in so many captured cities might in one place at least taste the fruits of victory. [8] About midday he recalled his men and formed them into two divisions. One he ordered to march round the foot of the mountain to a peak which was the same height as that on which the citadel stood and separated from it by a ravine as though torn away from it. [9] The twin peaks were so near one another that missiles could be thrown from the rock on to the citadel. With the other division the consul intended to mount up to the citadel, and he waited in the city for the signal from those who were to surmount the peak. [10] Their cheers on occupying the height and the attack of the other division from the city were too much for the Aetolians, utterly broken as their courage was and with no preparation for standing a siege in the citadel, which could hardly contain, much less protect, the women and children and the other non-combatants who had crowded there. [11] So at the first assault they laid down their arms and surrendered. Amongst them was Damocritus, the first magistrate of Aetolia. [12] At the beginning of the war he had told T. Quinctius, on his request for a copy of the decree inviting Antiochus, that be would give it him in Italy when the Aetolians were encamped there. This piece of arrogance made his surrender all the more pleasing to the victors.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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