Book 32
17
The consul was intensely mortified, for he looked upon this humiliating repulse as not only helping to prolong the siege of one solitary city, but also as likely to influence the future course of the war which, in his opinion, depended to a great extent upon unimportant incidents. After clearing the ground where the shattered wall lay in heaps he brought up a movable tower of immense height carrying a large number of men on its numerous stages, and sent on cohort after cohort to break through, if possible, the massed body of Macedonians, which they call the phalanx. But in the narrow space-for the breach in the wall was by no means a wide one-the kind of weapon he used and his style of fighting gave the enemy an advantage. When the serried Macedonian ranks presented their enormously long spears it was like a shield-wall, and when the Romans after fruitlessly hurling their javelins, drew their swords they could not get to close quarters, nor could they hack off the spear-heads; if they did succeed in cutting or breaking any off, the splintered shafts kept their places amongst the points of the uninjured ones and the palisade remained unbroken. Another thing which helped the enemy was the protection of their flanks by that part of the wall which was sound; they had not to attack or retire over a wide stretch of ground, which generally disorders the ranks. An accident which happened to the tower gave them still greater confidence. As it was being moved over ground not thoroughly beaten down, one of the wheels sank in and gave the tower such a list that it seemed to the enemy to be falling over.
