misbehaviour, they were re-admitted into friendship.  In like manner, although the Aetolians had not followed in the steps of the king, but had invited him, and had been principals in the war, not auxiliaries; nevertheless, if they could bring themselves to repentance they might still insure their safety.”  As their answer to these suggestions showed nothing like a pacific disposition, and it was evident that the business must be determined by force of arms, and that, notwithstanding the defeat of the king, the war of Aetolia was as far from a conclusion as ever, Acilius removed his camp from Thermopylae to Heraclea; and on the same day rode on horseback entirely round the walls, in order to acquaint himself with the localities of the city.  Heraclea is situated at the foot of Mount Oeta; the town itself is in the plain, but has a citadel overlooking it, which stands on an eminence of considerable height, terminated on all sides by precipices.  Having examined every part which he wished to see, the consul determined to make the attack in four places at once.  On the side next the river Asopus, where is also the Gymnasium, he gave the direction of the works and the assault to Lucius Valerius.  He assigned to Tiberius Sempronius Longus the attack of a part of the suburbs, which was as thickly inhabited as the city itself.  He appointed Marcus Baebius to act on the side opposite the Malian bay, a part where the access was far from easy; and Appius Claudius on the side next to another rivulet, called Melas; opposite to the temple of Diana.  By the vigorous emulation of these the towers, rams, and other machines used in the besieging of towns, were all completed within a few days.  The lands round Heraclea, naturally marshy, and abounding with tall trees, furnished timber in abundance for every kind of work; and then, as the Aetolians had fled into the city, the deserted suburbs supplied not only beams and boards, but also bricks and mortar, and stones of every size for all their various occasions.

23.  The Romans carried on the assault upon this city by means of works more than by their arms; the Aetolians, on the contrary, maintained their defence by dint of arms.  For when the walls were shaken by the ram they did not, as is usual, intercept and turn aside the strokes by the help of nooses formed on ropes, but sallied out in large armed bodies, with parties carrying fire, which they threw into the works.  They had likewise arched passages through the parapet, for the purpose of making sallies; and when they built up the wall anew, in the room of any part that was demolished, they left a great number of these, that they might rush out upon the enemy from many places at once.  In several days at the beginning, while their strength was unimpaired, they carried on this practice in numerous parties, and with much spirit, but afterwards in smaller numbers and more languidly.  For though they had a multiplicity of difficulties to struggle with, what above all things utterly consumed