he same time requesting him to
withdraw his army; and that if there seemed to him any necessity for
it he would discuss it with them by commissioners. In the mean time,
they sent five hundred soldiers, under the command of Hippolochus, to
Pherae, as a reinforcement; but these, being debarred of access by the
king's troops, who blocked up all the roads, retired to Scotussa. The
king answered the Larissan ambassadors in mild terms, that "he came
into their country, not with a design of making war, but of protecting
and establishing the liberty of the Thessalians." He sent a person
to make a similar declaration to the people of Pherae; who,
without giving him any answer, sent to the king, in the capacity of
ambassador, Pausanias, the first magistrate of their state. He offered
remonstrances of a similar kind with those which had been urged in
behalf of the people of Chalcis, at the first conference, on the
strait of the Euripus, as the cases were similar, and urged some with
a greater degree of boldness; on which the king desired that they
would consider seriously before they adopted a resolution, which,
while they were overcautious and provident of futurity, would give
them immediate cause of repentance, and then dismissed him. When the
Pheraeans were acquainted with the result of this embassy, without the
smallest hesitation they determined to endure whatever the fortune of
war might bring on them, rather than violate their engagements with
the Romans. They accordingly exerted their utmost efforts to provide
for the defence of their city; while the king, on his part, resolved
to assail the walls on every side at once; and considering, what was
evidently the case, that it depended on the fate of this city, the
first which he had besieged, whether he should for the future be
despised or dreaded by the whole nation of the Thessalians, he put in
practice every where all possible means of striking them with terror.
The first fury of the assault they supported with great firmness;
but in some time, great numbers of their men being either slain
or wounded, their resolution began to fail. Having soon been
so reanimated by the rebukes of their leaders, as to resolve on
persevering in their resistance, and having abandoned the exterior
circle of the wall, as their numbers now began to fail, they withdrew
to the interior part of the city, round which had been raised a
fortification of less extent. At last, being overcome by distress