44.11
The
fleet sailed on to the territory of Pallene where they went ashore to plunder.
This district, by far the most fertile of all those on the coast along which they
had sailed, belonged to Cassandrea. Here Eumenes, who had sailed from
Elaea, met them with twenty decked ships, and five had also been sent by
Prusias. This accession of strength emboldened the praetor to attempt the
capture of Cassandrea. This city was built by Cassander on the narrow
isthmus which connects the district of Pallene with the rest of Macedonia,
and is washed on one side by the Toronaic Gulf and on the other by the Gulf
of Macedonia. The tongue of land on which it stands projects into the sea,
forming a promontory equal in extent to the towering Mount Athos. In the
direction of Magnesia it has two headlands; the larger one is called the
Posideum, the smaller the Cape of Canastra. The attack was commenced on
two sides. The Roman commander, at a place called Clitae, carried his lines
through from the Macedonian to the Toronaic Gulf and hedged them with
forked poles to cut off all communication with the north. On the other side
there was a canal, and here Eumenes was operating. The Romans had a very
heavy task in filling up a fosse which Perseus had recently excavated for the
defence of the town. The praetor, seeing no heaps lying about anywhere,
enquired where the earth out of the fosse had been carried. Some arches
were pointed out to him which had been built, not up to the thickness of the
old wall, but to that of a single brick. The consul formed the design of
breaking through these and penetrating into the city, and he thought he
might do this unobserved, if the scaling parties assaulted the walls elsewhere
and called off the defenders to these threatened points. The garrison of
Cassandrea consisted of a far from contemptible force of able-bodied
townsmen, and in addition 800 Agrianes and 2000 Illyrians sent by Pleuratus
from Peneste, all keen fighters. Whilst these were defending the walls where
the Romans were doing their utmost to surmount them, the brickwork of the
arches was broken down in a moment and the city laid open. If those who
had made the breaches had been armed, they would have taken the place at
once. When the soldiers heard that this had been effected, they were so
delighted that they raised a sudden cheer and prepared to break into the city
at various points.
