and the Macedonians having
run together to defend the place thus stripped of its works, a furious
conflict ensued between themselves and the Romans. At first, by
reason of the enemy's superiority in number, the Romans were quickly
repulsed; but being joined by the auxiliary troops of Attalus and the
Achaeans, they restored the fight to an equality; so that there was
no doubt that they would easily drive the Macedonians and Greeks from
their ground. But there were in the town a great multitude of Italian
deserters; some of whom, having been in Hannibal's army, had, through
fear of being punished by the Romans, followed Philip; others, having
been sailors, had lately quitted the fleets, and gone over, in hopes
of more honourable employment: despair of safety, therefore, in case
of the Romans getting the better, inflamed these to a degree which
might rather be called madness than courage. Opposite to Sicyon is the
promontory of Juno Acraea, as she is called, stretching out into the
main, the passage to Corinth being about seven miles. To this place
Philocles, one of the king's generals, led, through Boeotia, fifteen
hundred soldiers; and there were barks from Corinth ready to take
these troops on board, and carry them over to Lechaeum. Attalus, on
this, advised to burn the works, and raise the siege immediately;
Quinctius was for persisting more obstinately in the attempt. However,
when he saw the king's troops posted at the gates, and that the
sallies of the besieged could not easily be withstood, he came over
to the opinion of Attalus. Thus, their design proving fruitless, they
dismissed the Achaeans, and returned to their ships. Attalus steered
to Piraeus, the Romans to Corcyra.

24. While the naval forces were thus employed, the consul, having
encamped before Elatia, in Phocis, first endeavoured, by conferring
with the principal inhabitants, to bring them over, and by their means
to effect his purpose; but on their answering that they had nothing in
their power, because the king's troops were more numerous and stronger
than the townsmen, he assaulted the city on all sides at once with
arms and engines. A battering-ram having been brought up, shattered
a part of the wall that reached from one tower to another, and this
falling with a prodigious noise and crash, left much of the town
exposed. On this a Roman cohort made an assault through the breach,
while at the same time the townsmen, quitting their several posts,
ra