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.