fountain Arethusa to the mouth of the large harbour,
of which he caused the Romans to be informed.
Accordingly, Marcellus ordered a transport with armed
men to be towed by a quadrireme to the Achradina during
the night, and the soldiers to be landed in the vicinity
of that gate which is near the fountain of Arethusa.
This order having been executed at the fourth watch,
and Mericus having received the soldiers when landed
at the gate, according to the agreement, Marcellus
assaulted the walls of the Achradina with all his forces
at break of day, so that he not only engaged the attention
of those who occupied the Achradina, but also bands
of armed men, quitting their own posts ran to the
spot from the island, in order to repel the furious
attack of the Romans. During this confusion, some
light ships which had been prepared beforehand, and
had sailed round, landed a body of armed men at the
island; these suddenly attacking the half-manned stations
and the opened door of the gate at which the troops
had a little before run out, got possession of the
island without much opposition, abandoned as it was,
in consequence of the flight and trepidation of its
guards. Nor were there any who rendered less
service, or showed less firmness in maintaining their
posts, than the deserters; for as they did not repose
much confidence even in those of their own party,
they fled in the middle of the contest. When
Marcellus learnt that the island was taken, one quarter
of the Achradina in the hands of his troops, and that
Mericus, with the men under his command, had joined
them, he sounded a retreat, lest the royal treasure,
the fame of which was greater than the reality, should
be plundered.
31. The impetuosity of the soldiers having been
checked, time and opportunity to escape were given
to the deserters in the Achradina; and the Syracusans,
at length delivered from their fears, threw open the
gates of the Achradina, and sent deputies to Marcellus,
requesting only safety for themselves and children.
Having summoned a council, to which the Syracusans
were invited who were among the Roman troops, having
been driven from home during the disturbances, Marcellus
replied, “that the services rendered by Hiero
through a period of fifty years, were not more in
number than the injuries committed against the Roman
people in these few years by those who had had possession
of Syracuse; but that most of these injuries had justly
recoiled upon their authors, and that they had inflicted
much more severe punishment upon themselves for the
violation of treaties, than the Roman people desired.
That he was indeed now besieging Syracuse for the
third year, but not that the Romans might hold that
state in a condition of slavery, but that the ringleaders
of the deserters might not keep it in a state of thraldom
and oppression. What the Syracusans could do
was exemplified, either by the conduct of those Syracusans
who were among the Roman troops, or that of the Spanish
general, Mericus, who had delivered up the post which