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29. At about the same time Lucius Quinctius received the surrender of the towns on the coast, some by their own choice, some from fear or as a result of attack. [2] Then, having learned that the town of Gytheum was the Lacedaemonians' storehouse of naval supplies of all kinds and that the Roman camp was not far from the sea, he determined to attack the town with his whole force. [3] It was at that time a strongly fortified place, well supplied with large numbers of citizens and immigrants and with all military equipment. [4] At an opportune moment for Quinctius, who was undertaking a difficult task, King Eumenes and the Rhodian fleet appeared. [5] A huge crowd of naval allies, assembled from the three fleets, within a few days made ready all the engines necessary for the siege of a city strongly fortified by land and sea. [6] Soon mantlets were brought up and the wall was being undermined and shaken by battering-rams. So one tower was overthrown by the repeated blows, and the adjacent wall was ruined by its fall; [7] and the Romans attempted at once to force their way in from the harbour side, whence the approach was more level, to distract the enemy's attention from the more exposed place, and also through the breach made by the falling of the wall. [8] Nor were they far from winning to the place they sought, but their attack was slowed up by the hope held out to them, but soon after found delusive, that the city would capitulate. [9] Dexagoridas and Gorgopas [p. 493]were in command of the city, with equal authority1 Dexagoridas had sent word to the Roman lieutenant that he would give up the city, [10] and when the time and method of procedure had been agreed upon, the traitor was slain by Gorgopas and the city was more vigorously defended by him alone. And the continuance of the siege would have been more difficult if Titus Quinctius had not come up with four thousand picked troops. [11] When he had revealed his line of battle, drawn up on the brow of a hill no great distance from the city, and on the other side Lucius Quinctius was pressing the assault from his works on land and sea, then despair compelled Gorgopas too to adopt the plan which he had punished with death in another's case, [12] and bargaining that he should be permitted to lead away the soldiers whom he [13] had had as a garrison, he surrendered the city to Quinctius. [14] Before Gytheum was surrendered, Pythagoras, the prefect who had been left at Argos, turned over the guardianship of the city to Timocrates of Pellene and with a thousand mercenaries and two thousand Argives joined Nabis in Lacedaemon.

1 B.C. 195

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1883)
load focus Notes (1881)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (English, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Summary (Latin, Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Latin (Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. Professor of Latin and Head of the Department of Classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1883)
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  • Commentary references to this page (7):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.45
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.19
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.63
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.35
  • Cross-references to this page (12):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (9):
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