Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 38
Rev. Canon Roberts, Ed.

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The lines of investment were at length closed and the siege works which the consul was preparing to bring up against the walls completed. He now commenced an assault from five different points. [2] On the side of the city overlooking the plain where the approach was easiest he brought up three siege-engines, at equal distances from each other, at a place called the Pyrrheum, another near the Aesculapium, and the fifth against the citadel. [3] As he shook the walls with the battering-rams and sheared off the parapet by scythe blades fixed on long poles the defenders were dismayed at the sight and at the terrific noise of [4??] the blows delivered by the rams, but when they saw that the walls were still standing, their courage revived and they hammered the rams by means of swing beams with heavy masses of lead, large stones and stout beams of wood; they dragged with iron grapples the poles with the scythe blades inside the walls and broke off the blades. [5] Their night attacks on the parties guarding the engines, and sorties by day against the outposts, spread alarm on the other side. [6] While this was the state of things in Ambracia the Aetolians had returned from their plundering raid to Stratus. Here Nicander hit upon a bold stroke by which he hoped to raise the siege. [7] His intention was to introduce a certain Nicodamus into the city with 500 Aetolians, and he fixed the night and the hour at which an attack was to be made from the city on the hostile works directed against the Pyrrheum whilst he himself threatened the Roman camp. By this double attack, all the more alarming because made in the night, he hoped to secure a brilliant success. [8] Nicander moved forward in the dead of the night and after passing some of the advanced posts unobserved and forcing his way through others by a determined onslaught, climbed over the lines connecting the different works and penetrated into the city. His arrival raised the hopes of the besieged and emboldened them to attempt any adventure however hazardous. [9] When the appointed night arrived he made a sudden attack on the works. His attempt did not meet with a corresponding success, for no attack was made from outside, either because the Aetolian commander was afraid to move or because he deemed it more [10??] important to carry assistance to the Amphilochians, who had been lately won over and whom Philip's son Perseus, who had been sent to recover Dolopia and Amphilochia, was attacking with his utmost strength.