o go upon an expedition that night. Then the time, as
it was supposed, having arrived, when, after having feasted from the
middle of the day, they would have had their fill of wine, and have
begun to sleep, he ordered the soldiers of one company to proceed with
the ladders, while about a thousand armed men were in silence marched
to the spot in a slender column. The foremost having mounted the wall,
without noise or confusion, the others followed in order; the boldness
of the former inspiring even the irresolute with courage.

24. The thousand armed men had now taken a part of the city, when the
rest, applying a greater number of ladders, mounted the wall on a
signal given from the Hexapylos. To this place the former party had
arrived in entire solitude; as the greater part of them, having
feasted in the towers, were either asleep from the effects of wine, or
else, half asleep, were still drinking. A few of them, however, they
surprised in their beds, and put to the sword. They began then to
break open a postern gate near the Hexapylos, which required great
force; and a signal was given from the wall by sounding a trumpet, as
had been agreed upon. After this, the attack was carried on in every
quarter, not secretly, but by open force; for they had now reached
Epipolae, a place protected by numerous guards, where the business was
to terrify the enemy, and not to escape their notice. In effect they
were terrified; for as soon as the sound of the trumpets was heard,
and the shouts of the men who had got possession of the walls and a
part of the city, the guards concluded that every part was taken, and
some of them fled along the wall, others leaped down from it, or were
thrown down headlong by a crowd of the terrified townsmen. A great
part of the inhabitants, however, were ignorant of this disastrous
event, all of them being overpowered with wine and sleep; and because,
in a city of so wide extent, what was perceived in one quarter was not
readily made known through the whole city. A little before day,
Marcellus having entered the city with all his forces, through the
Hexapylos, which was forced open roused all the townsmen; who ran to
arms, in order, if possible, by their efforts, to afford succour to
the city, which was now almost taken. Epicydes advanced with a body of
troops at a rapid pace from the Insula, which the Syracusans
themselves call Nasos, not doubting but that he should be able to
drive out what he suppose