36.24
After
suspending the operations at midnight the consul recommenced the assault at
the fourth watch with extreme violence on three sides. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. So at the first assault they
laid down their arms and surrendered. Amongst them was Damocritus, the
first magistrate of Aetolia. 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.