renewed
it on three of the sides, at the fourth watch, with the utmost vigour;
ordering Tiberius Sempronius, on the fourth, to keep his party alert,
and ready to obey his signal; for he concluded assuredly, that in the
tumult by night the enemy would all run to those quarters whence the
shouting was heard. Of the Aetolians, such as had gone to rest, with
difficulty roused their bodies from sleep, exhausted as they were with
fatigue and watching; and such as were still awake, ran in the dark
to the places where they heard the noise of fighting. Meanwhile the
Romans endeavoured some to climb over the ruins of the walls, through
the breaches; others, to scale the walls with ladders; while the
Aetolians hastened in all directions to defend the parts attacked.
In one quarter, where the buildings stood outside the city, there
was neither attack nor defence. A party stood ready, waiting for the
signal to make an attack, but there was none within to oppose them.
The day now began to dawn, and the consul gave the signal; on which
the party, without any opposition, made their way into the town; some
through parts that had been battered, others scaling the walls where
they were entire. As soon as the Aetolians heard them raise the shout,
which denoted the place being taken, they every where forsook their
posts, and fled into the citadel. The victors sacked the city;
the consul having given permission, not for the sake of gratifying
resentment or animosity, but that the soldiers, after having been
restrained from plunder in so many cities captured from the enemy,
might at last, in some one place, enjoy the fruits of victory. About
mid-day he recalled the troops, and dividing them into two parts,
ordered one to be led round by the foot of the mountain to a rock,
which was of equal height with the citadel, and seemed as if it had
been broken off from it, leaving a hollow between; but the summits of
these eminences are so nearly contiguous that weapons may be thrown
into the citadel from the top of the other. With the other half of the
troops the consul intended to march, up from the city to the citadel,
and waited to receive a signal from those who were to mount the rock
on the farther side. The Aetolians in the citadel could not support
the shout of the party which had seized the rock, and the consequent
attack of the Romans from the city; for their courage was now broken,
and the place was by no means in a condition to hold out a si