Book 25
23
Just when the circumvallation of Capua was being completed the siege of Syracuse came to an end. This result was due in a large measure to the energy and courage of the general and his army, but it had been helped on by domestic treachery. At the commencement of the spring Marcellus was undecided whether to turn the stress of war to Agrigentum against Himilco and Hippocrates, or whether he should press the siege of Syracuse. He saw that this place could not be carried by assault, as it was unassailable by sea or land owing to its position, nor could it be reduced by famine, since it was nourished by a free supply of provisions from Carthage. However, he determined to leave nothing untried. There were with the Romans some leading members of the Syracusan nobility who had been expelled when the defection took place, and Marcellus told these refugees to sound the feelings of the men of their own party, and give them an assurance that if Syracuse were surrendered they should be free and live under their own laws. It was impossible to get any chance of interviews, for the fact of many being suspected made all more careful and watchful, so that no attempt of the kind should escape detection. A slave belonging to the exiles was admitted into the city as a deserter, and after getting a few men together, broached the subject in conversation. Subsequently some were hidden under the nets in a fishing boat and in that way taken round to the Roman camp where they had conversations with the refugees. Different people, one after another, did the same thing, until at last there were as many as eighty concerned in the matter. When all the arrangements for surrender had been made, information was given to Epicydes by a certain Attalus who resented not having been intrusted with the secret, and they were all tortured to death.
