38.5
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. 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. 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 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. Their night attacks on the parties
guarding the engines, and sorties by day against the outposts, spread alarm
on the other side. 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. 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. 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. 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 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.
