very weak; for, the
narrowness of the place causing them to be closely crowded together,
they neither had room to discharge their weapons with a previous run,
which gives great force to them, nor clear and steady footing while
they made their throw Of those, therefore, discharged against the
front of the Romans, none pierced their bodies, few even their
shields; but several were wounded by those who surrounded them from
higher places. And presently, when they advanced a little, they were
hurt unawares, both with javelins, and tiles also thrown from the tops
of the houses. On this they raised their shields over their heads;
and joining them so close together as to leave no room for injury from
such random casts, or even for the insertion of a javelin, by a hand
within reach, they pressed forward under cover of this tortoise fence.
For some time the narrow streets, being thronged with a multitude of
their own soldiers, and also of the enemy, considerably retarded the
progress of the Romans; but when once, by gradually pushing back the
enemy, they gained the wider streets of the city, the impetuosity of
their attack could no longer be withstood. While the Lacedaemonians,
having turned their backs, fled precipitately to the higher places,
Nabis, being utterly confounded, as if the town were already taken,
began to look about for a way to make his escape. Pythagoras, while in
other respects he displayed the spirit and conduct of a general, was
now the sole means of saving the city from being taken. For he ordered
the buildings nearest to the wall to be set on fire; and these being
instantly in a blaze, those who, on another occasion, would have
brought help to extinguish the fire, now helping to increase it, the
roofs tumbled on the Romans; and not only fragments of the tiles, but
also the half-burned timber, reached the soldiers: the flames spread
wide, and the smoke caused a degree of terror even greater than the
danger. In consequence, the Romans who were without the city, and
were just then making the principal attack, retired from the wall;
and those who were within, fearing lest the fire, rising behind them,
should put it out of their power to rejoin the rest of the army, began
to retreat. Whereupon Quinctius, seeing how matters stood, ordered a
general retreat to be sounded.--Thus, being at length recalled from a
city which they had nearly taken, they returned to their camp.

40. Quinctius, conceiving greater hopes f