in garrison, who were both chosen men and many in number, supposing that they would be entitled to extraordinary honour if they should maintain the defence of the city by means of arms and courage, rather than by the help of walls, formed themselves in a compact body, strengthening their line by an uncommon number of files in depth.  These, when they saw the Romans entering by the breaches, drove them back, so that they were entangled among the rubbish, and with difficulty could effect a retreat.  This gave the consul great uneasiness; for he considered such a disgrace, not merely as it retarded the reduction of a single city, but as likely to affect materially the whole process of the war, which in general depends much on the influence of events in themselves unimportant.  Having therefore cleared the ground, which was heaped up with the rubbish of the half-ruined wall, he brought up a tower of extraordinary height, consisting of many stories, and which carried a great number of soldiers.  He likewise sent up the cohorts in strong bodies one after another, to force their way, if possible, through the wedge of the Macedonians, which is called a phalanx.  But in such a confined space, (for the wall was thrown down to no great extent,) the enemy had the advantage, both in the kind of weapons which they used, and in the manner of fighting.  When the Macedonians, in close array, stretched out before them their long spears against the target fence which was formed by the close position of their antagonists’ shields, and when the Romans, after discharging their javelins without effect, drew their swords, these could neither press on to a closer combat, nor cut off the heads of the spears; and if they did cut or break off any, the shaft, being sharp at the part where it was broken, filled up its place among the points of those which were unbroken, in a kind of palisade.  Besides this, the parts of the wall still standing rendered both the flanks of the Macedonians secure, who were not obliged, either in retreating or in advancing to an attack, to pass through a long space, which generally occasions disorder in the ranks.  An accidental circumstance also helped to confirm their courage:  for as the tower was moved along a bank of not sufficiently solid soil, one of the wheels sinking into a rut, made the tower lean in such a manner that it appeared to the enemy as if falling, and threw the soldiers posted on it into consternation and affright.

[Footnote 1:  9l. 13s. 9d.]

18.  As none of his attempts met any success, the consul was very unwilling to allow such a comparison to be exhibited between the two classes of soldiery and their respective weapons; at the same time, he could neither see any prospect of reducing the place speedily, nor any means of subsisting in winter, at such a distance from the sea, and in regions desolated by the calamities of war.  He therefore raised the siege; and as, along the whole coast of Acarnania and Aetolia, there was no port capable of containing