repository of all their naval stores, and that the Roman camp was at
no great distance from the sea, he resolved to attack that town
with his whole force. It was, at that time, a place of considerable
strength; well furnished with great numbers of native inhabitants and
settlers from other parts, and with every kind of warlike stores. Very
seasonably for Quinctius, when commencing an enterprise of no easy
nature, king Eumenes and the Rhodian fleet came to his assistance. The
vast multitude of seamen, collected out of the three fleets, finished
in a few days all the works requisite for the siege of a city so
strongly fortified, both on the land side and on that next the sea.
Covered galleries were soon brought up; the wall was undermined, and,
at the same time, shaken with battering rams. By the frequent shocks
given with these, one of the towers was thrown down, and, by its fall,
the adjoining wall on each side was laid flat. The Romans, on this,
attempted to force in, both on the side next the port, to which the
approach was more level than to the rest, hoping to divert the enemy's
attention from the more open passage, and, at the same time, to enter
the breach caused by the falling of the wall. They were near effecting
their design of penetrating into the town, when the assault was
suspended by the prospect which was held out of the surrender of
the city. This however, was subsequently dissipated. Dexagoridas and
Gorgopas commanded there, with equal authority. Dexagoridas had sent
to the Roman general a message that he would give up the city; and,
after the time and the mode of proceeding had been agreed on, he
was slain as a traitor by Gorgopas, and the defence of the city was
maintained with redoubled vigour by this single commander. The further
prosecution of the siege would have been much more difficult, had not
Titus Quinctius arrived with a body of four thousand chosen men. He
showed his army in order of battle, on the brow of a hill at a small
distance from the city; and, on the other side, Lucius Quinctius plied
the enemy hard with his engines, both on the quarter of the sea, and
of the land; on which Gorgopas was compelled to adopt that proceeding,
which, in the case of another, he had punished with death. After
stipulating for liberty to carry away the soldiers whom he had there
as a garrison, he surrendered the city to Quinctius. Previous to the
surrender of Gythium, Pythagoras, who had been left as command