38.6
As stated
above, the Roman engines were directed against the Pyrrheum at three
separate points, and against each of these the Aetolians were making
simultaneous attacks, though not with the same weapons or the same force.
Some went up with lighted torches, others carried tow and pitch and
fire-darts; the whole of their line was lit up by the flames. At the first onset
they overwhelmed many of the guards; then when the noise of the tumult
and clamour reached the camp, the consul gave the signal and the Romans,
seizing their weapons, poured out of all the gates to help their comrades.
Only at one point was there a real fight between sword and fire; at the two
others the Aetolians after attempting, rather than sustaining, a conflict
retreated without effecting anything. A desperate struggle raged in one
quarter; here the two generals, Eupolemus and Nicodamus, at the head of
their respective divisions urged on the combatants and encouraged them with
the almost certain hope of Nicander's coming up as he had promised and
taking the enemy in the rear. This hope for some time kept up their spirits,
but when they failed to receive the agreed signal from their comrades and
found that the numbers of the enemy were increasing, their courage waned
and at last they gave up the attempt, and finding their retreat almost cut off,
fled in disorder back to the city. They succeeded, however, in setting some
of the siege-works on fire after losing considerably more than they had
themselves killed of the enemy. If the preconcerted plan of operations had
been successful, there is no doubt that at least one section of the siege-works
would have been carried with a great slaughter of the Romans. The
Ambracians and Aetolians in the city not only abandoned all further attempts
that night, but during the remainder of the siege showed themselves much
less enterprising, as they felt they had been betrayed. No more sorties were
made against the enemy's posts; they confined themselves to fighting in
comparative safety from the walls and towers.
