XIV.  In the mean time, as the story goes, some soldiers in the Keramicus[219] overheard certain old men talking to one another, and abusing the tyrant for not guarding the approach to the wall about the Heptachalkum, which was the only part, they said, where it was practicable and easy for the enemy to get over; and the soldiers reported to Sulla what they heard.  Sulla did not neglect the intelligence, but he went to the spot by night, and seeing that it was practicable, he set about the thing forthwith.  He says in his Memoirs that the first man who mounted the wall was Marcus Teius,[220] who, finding a soldier in his way, struck him a violent blow on the helmet, which broke his sword; still Marcus did not retreat, but kept his ground.  The city then was taken from this quarter, as the old Athenians said it might be.  Sulla having destroyed and levelled that part of the wall which lies between the Peiraeic and the Sacred[221] Gate, about midnight entered the city, striking terror with the sound of trumpets and horns, and the shouts and cries of the soldiers, who had his full licence to plunder and kill, and made their way through the streets with naked swords.  The slain were not counted, but the number is even now measured by the space over which the blood flowed.  For besides those who were slaughtered in the other parts of the city, the blood of those who fell about the Agora[222] covered all the Keramicus within Dipylum:  many say that it even flowed through the gates and deluged the suburbs.  But though the number of those who perished by the sword was so great, as many killed themselves for sorrow and regret at the overthrow of their native city.  For all the most honest citizens were driven to despair, expecting in Sulla neither humanity nor moderation.  But, however, when Meidias and Kalliphon, who were exiles, fell down at his knees with entreaties, and the Senators who were in his army urged him to save the city, being now sated with vengeance and passing some encomiums upon the ancient Athenians, he said he would pardon the many for the sake of the few, and the living for the sake of the dead.  Sulla states in his Memoirs, that he took Athens on the Calends of March,[223] which day nearly coincides with the new moon of Anthesterion, in which month it happens that the Athenians perform many ceremonies in commemoration of the great damage and loss occasioned by the heavy rain, for they suppose that the deluge happened pretty nearly about that time.  When the city was taken the tyrant retreated to the Acropolis, where he was besieged by Curio, who was commissioned for this purpose:  after he had held out for some time, Aristion was compelled to surrender for want of water; his surrender was immediately followed by a token from the deity, for on the very day and hour on which Curio took the tyrant from the Acropolis, the clouds gathered in the clear sky, and a violent shower descended which filled the Acropolis with water.  Sulla soon took the Peiraeus also, and burnt the greater part of it, including the arsenal of Philo,[224] which was a wonderful work.