Spring 212 BC
The festival of Artemis
In spring 212 BC the Romans learn that the Syracusans are about to hold a three-day festival of Artemis. Livy writes that a Roman soldier had counted the courses of stone in a tower near the harbour of Trogilus and found the wall there lower than it looked. On the night of the festival a picked party carries ladders to that stretch of wall, climbs it unopposed and takes the nearby towers.
The Euryalus fort at the western end of Epipolae, with the bastion that carried its catapultsWikimedia Commons, Giovanni Dall’Orto, Attribution (0932 - Siracusa - Castello Eurialo - Bastione e Pentapylon - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto - 17-Oct-2008.jpg)
The party opens the Hexapylon, and at dawn Marcellus leads his army onto Epipolae. The districts of Tyche and Neapolis surrender and are plundered, and Marcellus camps between them. The garrison of the Euryalus fort, at the western end of the plateau, later surrenders on terms. Achradina and the island of Ortygia, each with its own walls, hold out under Epicydes.
Sources
- Livy, History of Rome, book 25, 23 to 25.
- Plutarch, Life of Marcellus.
- Dexter Hoyos, Mastering the West (2015).
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