her to
the size of the city, or its opulence in other particulars.

17. The design on Carystus was then resumed, and the fleets sailed
thither; on which the whole body of the inhabitants, before the troops
were disembarked, deserted the city and fled into the citadel, whence
they sent deputies to beg protection from the Roman general. To the
townspeople life and liberty were immediately granted; and it was
ordered, that the Macedonians should pay a ransom of three hundred
drachmas[1] a head, deliver up their arms, and quit the country. After
being ransomed for the said amount, they were transported, unarmed, to
Boeotia. The combined fleets having, in the space of a few days,
taken these two important cities of Euboea, sailed round Sunium, a
promontory of Attica, and steered their course to Cenchreae, the grand
mart of the Corinthians. In the mean time, the consul found the siege
of Atrax more tedious and severe than had been universally expected,
and the enemy resisted in the way which they had least anticipated. He
had supposed that the whole of the trouble would be in demolishing the
wall, and that if he could once open a passage for his soldiers into
the city, the consequence would then be, the flight and slaughter of
the enemy, as usually happens on the capture of towns. But when, on a
breach being made in the wall by the rams, and when the soldiers, by
mounting over the ruins, had entered the place, this proved only
the beginning, as it were, of an unusual and fresh labour. For the
Macedonians in garrison, who were both chosen men and many in number,
supposing that they would be entitled to extraordinary honour if they
should maintain the defence of the city by means of arms and courage,
rather than by the help of walls, formed themselves in a compact body,
strengthening their line by an uncommon number of files in depth.
These, when they saw the Romans entering by the breaches, drove
them back, so that they were entangled among the rubbish, and
with difficulty could effect a retreat. This gave the consul great
uneasiness; for he considered such a disgrace, not merely as it
retarded the reduction of a single city, but as likely to affect
materially the whole process of the war, which in general depends much
on the influence of events in themselves unimportant. Having therefore
cleared the ground, which was heaped up with the rubbish of the
half-ruined wall, he brought up a tower of extraordinary height,
consisting