erefore, leaving such a
number of men as seemed sufficient to finish the works, he passed over
to the nearest part of the continent, and, arriving unexpectedly, made
himself master of Larissa, except the citadel,--not that celebrated
city in Thessaly, but another, which they call Cremaste. Attalus also
surprised Aegeleos, where nothing was less apprehended than such an
enterprise during the siege of another city. The works at Oreus had
now begun to take effect, while the garrison within were almost spent
with unremitted toil, (keeping watch both by day and night,) and also
with wounds. Part of the wall, being loosened by the strokes of the
ram, had fallen down in many places; and the Romans, during the night,
broke into the citadel through the breach which lay over the harbour.
Attalus, likewise, at the first light, on a signal given from the
citadel by the Romans, himself also assaulted the city, where great
part of the walls had been levelled; on which the garrison and
townsmen fled into the other citadel, and a surrender was made two
days after. The city fell to the king, the prisoners to the Romans.

47. The autumnal equinox now approached, and the Euboean gulf, called
Coela, is reckoned dangerous by mariners. Choosing, therefore, to
remove thence before the winter storms came on, they returned to
Piraeus, from whence they had set out for the campaign. Apustius,
leaving there thirty ships, sailed by Malea to Corcyra. The king was
delayed during the celebration of the mysteries of Ceres, that he
might assist at the solemnities, immediately after which he also
retired into Asia, sending home Agesimbrotus and the Rhodians. Such,
during that summer, were the proceedings, by sea and land, of
the Roman consul and lieutenant-general, aided by Attalus and the
Rhodians, against Philip and his allies. The other consul, Caius
Aurelius, on coming into his province and finding the war there
already brought to a conclusion, did not dissemble his resentment
against the praetor, for having proceeded to action in his absence;
wherefore, sending him away to Etruria, he led on the legions into the
enemy's country, and, by laying it waste, carried on the war with more
spoil than glory. Lucius Furius, finding nothing in Etruria that
could give him employment, and at the same time intent on obtaining a
triumph for his success against the Gauls, which he considered would
be more easily accomplished in the absence of the consul, who envied