As stated above, the Roman engines were directed against the Pyrrheum at three separate points, and against each of these the Aetolians were making simultaneous attacks, though not with the same weapons or the same force. [2] Some went up with lighted torches, others carried tow and pitch and fire-darts; the whole of their line was lit up by the flames. [3] At the first onset they overwhelmed many of the guards; then when the noise of the tumult and clamour reached the camp, the consul gave the signal and the Romans, seizing their weapons, poured out of all the gates to help their comrades. [4] Only at one point was there a real fight between sword and fire; at the two others the Aetolians after attempting, rather than sustaining, a conflict retreated without effecting anything. [5] A desperate struggle raged in one quarter; here the two generals, Eupolemus and Nicodamus, at the head of their respective divisions urged on the combatants and encouraged them with the almost certain hope of Nicander's coming up as he had promised and taking the enemy in the rear. [6] This hope for some time kept up their spirits, but when they failed to receive the agreed signal from their comrades and found that the numbers of the enemy were increasing, their courage waned and at last they gave up the attempt, and finding their retreat almost cut off, fled in disorder back to the city. [7] They succeeded, however, in setting some of the siege-works on fire after losing considerably more than they had themselves killed of the enemy. If the preconcerted plan of operations had been successful, there is no doubt that at least one section of the siege-works would have been carried with a great slaughter of the Romans. [8] The Ambracians and Aetolians in the city not only abandoned all further attempts that night, but during the remainder of the siege showed themselves much less enterprising, as they felt they had been betrayed. [9] No more sorties were made against the enemy's posts; they confined themselves to fighting in comparative safety from the walls and towers.
