16.  Philip acted with a spirit more becoming a king; for, though he had found himself unequal to the forces of Attalus and the Rhodians, yet he was not dismayed, even by the Roman war with which he was threatened.  Sending Philocles, one of his generals, with two thousand foot and two hundred horse, to ravage the lands of the Athenians, he gave the command of his fleet to Heraclides, to make for Maronea, and marched thither himself by land, with two thousand foot lightly equipped, and two hundred horse.  Maronea he took at the first assault; and afterwards, with a good deal of trouble, got possession of Aenus, which was at last betrayed to him by Ganymede, the lieutenant of Ptolemy.  He then seized on other forts, Cypselus, Doriscos, and Serrheus; and, advancing from thence to the Chersonesus, received Elaeus and Alopeconnesus, which were surrendered by the inhabitants.  Callipolis also, and Madytos, were given up to him, with several forts of but little consequence.  The people of Abydus shut their gates against him, not admitting the ambassadors.  This siege detained Philip a long time; and it might have been relieved, had not Attalus and the Rhodians been dilatory.  The king sent only three hundred men for a garrison, and the Rhodians one quadrireme from their fleet, although it was lying idle at Tenedos:  and afterwards, when the besieged could with difficulty hold out any longer, Attalus, going over in person, did nothing more than show them some hope of relief being near, giving no assistance to these his allies either by land or sea.

17.  At first the people of Abydus, by means of engines placed along the walls, not only prevented the approaches by land, but annoyed the enemy’s ships in their station.  Afterwards a part of the wall being thrown down, and the assailants having penetrated by mines to an inner wall, which had been hastily raised to oppose their entrance, they sent ambassadors to the king about the conditions of the surrender of the city.  They demanded permission to send away the Rhodian quadrireme, with the crew, and the troops of Attalus in the garrison; and that they themselves might depart from the city, each with one suit of apparel.  When Philip’s answer afforded no hopes of accommodation, unless they surrendered at discretion, this repudiation of their embassy so exasperated them, at once through indignation and despair, that, seized with the same kind of fury which had possessed the Saguntines, they ordered all the matrons to be shut up in the temple of Diana, and the free-born youths and virgins, and even the infants with their nurses, in the place of exercise; the gold and silver to be carried into the forum; their valuable garments to be put on board the Rhodian ship, and another from Cyzicum, which lay in the harbour; the priests and victims to be brought, and altars to be erected in the midst.  There they appointed a select number, who, as soon as they should see the army of their friends cut off in defending the breach, were