Βιβλιοθηκη ιστορικη 17.98.5

17.98.5

τῶν δὲ Μακεδόνων περὶ τὴν τειχομαχίαν ἔτι διατριβόντων ἁρπάσας κλίμακα καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἄκρας τείχεσι προσερείσας καὶ τὴν πέλτην ὑπὲρ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἔχων προσανέβαινε. τῆς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν ὀξύτητος φθανούσης τοὺς προμαχομένους τῶν βαρβάρων ταχέως ἐπέβη τῷ τείχει.

CHAPTER XCVIII. — Combination of the Syrakousai and Malloi — Alexander, neglecting the warning of a soothsayer, attacks their stronghold, and scales the walls of its citadel
He undertook next an expedition against the Syrakousai and the people called the Malloi, two populous and warlike nations. The inhabitants, he found, had mustered a force of 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse, and 700 chariots. Before Alexander's coming they had been at feud with each other, but on his approach had settled their differences, and cemented an alliance by intermarriage, each nation taking and giving in exchange 10,000 of their young women for wives. They did not, however, combine their forces and take the field, for as a dispute had arisen about the leadership, they had drawn off into the adjoining towns. Alexander, while approaching the city that first came in his way, was pondering how he could lay siege to it and capture it at the very first assault, when one of the soothsayers, named Demophon, came to him and said that he had been forewarned by certain omens that the king in besieging the place would be very dangerously wounded, and he therefore advised Alexander to let that city alone for the present, and meanwhile turn his attention to other enterprises. But the king sharply rebuked him for hampering the valour of men in the heat of action. He then made arrangements for the conduct of the siege, and he led himself the way to the city, which he was ambitious to reduce at once by a vigorous assault. The battering train was, however, late in coming up, and he was himself the first to burst open a postern, and by this side entrance get into the city. He then cut down many of the defenders, put the rest to flight, and pursued them into the citadel. As the Macedonians were meanwhile detained fighting at the wall, he seized a ladder, and applying it to the rampart of the fortress, began to mount it, holding the while his shield above his head. He climbed up with such activity that he quickly reached the top, and surprised the barbarians who were stationed there on guard. The Indians did not venture to close with him, but assailed him from a distance off with darts and arrows, so that the king was sorely galled with the pelting storm of missiles. By this time the Macedonians had applied to the walls two scaling ladders, up which they were mounting, when both of them from being overcrowded broke down, precipitating every one to the ground.