e straying idly about the
country; and that the townsmen, depending on the Macedonian garrison,
neglected the guard of the city. Claudius, on this authority, set out
and though he arrived at Sunium early enough to have sailed forward
to the entrance of the strait of Euboea, yet fearing that, on doubling
the promontory, he might be descried by the enemy, he lay by with
the fleet until night. As soon as it grew dark he began to move, and,
favoured by a calm, arrived at Chalcis a little before day; and then,
approaching the city, on a side where it was thinly inhabited, with
a small party of soldiers, and by means of scaling ladders, he got
possession of the nearest tower, and the wall on each side; the guards
being asleep in some places, and in others no one being on the watch.
Thence they advanced to the more populous parts of the town, and
having slain the sentinels, and broke open a gate, they gave an
entrance to the main body of the troops. These immediately spread
themselves throughout the whole city, and increased the tumult by
setting fire to the buildings round the forum, by which means both the
granaries belonging to the king, and his armoury, with a vast store of
machines and engines, were reduced to ashes. Then commenced a general
slaughter of those who fled, as well as of those who made resistance;
and after having either put to the sword or driven out every one who
was of an age fit to bear arms, (Sopater also, the Acarnanian, who
commanded the garrison, being slain,) they first collected all the
spoils in the forum, and then carried it on board the ships. The
prison, too, was forced open by the Rhodians, and those prisoners
whom Philip had shut up there, as in the safest custody, were set at
liberty. They next pulled down and mutilated the statues of the king;
and then, on a signal being given for a retreat, re-embarked and
returned to Piraeeus, from whence they had set out. If there had
been so large a force of Roman soldiers that Chalcis might have been
retained and the protection of Athens not neglected, Chalcis and
Euripus might have been taken from the king;--a most important
advantage at the commencement of the war. For as the pass of
Thermopylae is the principal barrier of Greece by land, so is the
strait of the Euripus by sea.

24. Philip was then at Demetrias, and as soon as the news arrived
there of the calamity which had befallen the city of his allies,
although it was too late to carry assistanc