Book 31
45
When Attalus and the Romans arrived at the Piraeus they stayed there a few days and then left for Andros with a heavy cargo of decrees quite as extravagant in their praises of their friends as in their expressions of wrath against their enemy. They brought up in the harbour of Gaurelum, and a party was sent ashore to test the feelings of the citizens and find out whether they preferred to surrender voluntarily or to await an assault. They replied that they were not their own masters, as the place was held by Philip's troops. Thereupon the forces were landed and all the usual preparations for an assault were made, Attalus approached the city on one side and the Roman commander on the other. The novel sight of the Roman arms and standards and the spirit with which the soldiers without the slightest hesitation mounted the walls utterly appalled the Greeks, who promptly fled to the citadel, leaving the enemy in possession of the city. There they held out for two days, trusting more to the strength of the place than to their own arms; on the third they, together with the garrison, surrendered the town and citadel on condition of being allowed to retire with one garment apiece to Delium in Boeotia. The city itself was made over by the Romans to Attalus; they themselves carried off the plunder and all that adorned the city. Anxious not to have the island a solitude, Attalus persuaded nearly all the Macedonians, as well as some of the Andrians, to remain there. Subsequently those who had, in accordance with the terms of surrender, migrated to Delium were induced by the king's promises to return, for the love of country made them more ready to trust his word.
