Kitap 31
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The Romans and Attalus attacked Oreus on different sides; the former directed their assault against the citadel which faced the sea, whilst Attalus directed his towards the hollow between the two citadels where a wall separates one portion of the city from the other. And as they attacked at different points, so they employed different methods. The Romans brought their vineae and battering rams close up to the wall, protecting themselves with their shield-roof; the king's troops poured in a hail of missiles from their ballistae and catapults of every description. They hurled huge pieces of rock, and constructed mines and made use of every expedient which they had found useful in the former siege. The Macedonians, however, who were defending city and citadel were not only in greater force but they not forgotten Philip's censures for their former misconduct nor his threatenings and promises in the respect of the future, and so they exhibited more courage and resolution. The Roman general found that more time was being spent there than he expected and that there was a better prospect of success in a regular investment than in a sudden assault. Other operations might be conducted during the siege, so, leaving a sufficient force to complete the investment, he sailed to the nearest point on the mainland, and suddenly appearing before Larissa-not the well-known city in Thessaly, but another, called Cremaste-he captured all the city but the citadel. Attalus, too, surprised Aegeleon, where the inhabitants were not in the least apprehending an attack from an enemy who was engaged in the siege of another city. By this time the siege-works round Oreus had begun to tell upon the place and the garrison were weakened by their losses and exhausted by the incessant labour of watches and guards by night and day alike. A part of the wall had been loosened by the blows of the battering-rams and had fallen down in several places. The Romans broke through the breach during the night and forced their way into the citadel commanding the harbour. On receiving a signal from the Romans in the citadel Attalus entered the city at daybreak where a large portion of the wall lay in ruins. The garrison and townsmen fled to the other citadel and in two days' time surrendered. The city fell to Attalus, the prisoners to the Romans.
