The War of Antiochus with Achaeus
(See [Note]5, 107)
Round Sardis ceaseless and protracted skirmishes were
note
taking place and fighting by night and day, both
armies inventing every possible kind of plot and
counterplot against each other: to describe
which in detail would be as useless as it would
be in the last degree wearisome. At last, when
the siege had already entered upon its second year, Lagoras
the Cretan came forward. He had had a considerable experience in war, and had learnt that as a rule cities fall into
the hands of their enemies most easily from some neglect on
the part of their inhabitants, when, trusting to the natural or
artificial strength of their defences, they neglect to keep proper
guard and become thoroughly careless. He had observed
too, that in such fortified cities captures were effected at
the points of greatest strength, which were believed to have
been despaired of by the enemy. So in the present instance,
when he saw that the prevailing notion of the strength of
Sardis caused the whole army to despair of taking it by storm,
and to believe that the one hope of getting it was by starving
it out, he gave all the closer attention to the subject; and
eagerly scanned every possible method of making an attempt to
capture the town. Having observed therefore that a portion
of the wall was unguarded, near a place called the Saw, which
unites the citadel and city, he conceived the hope and idea of
performing this exploit. He had discovered the carelessness
of the men guarding this wall from the following circumstance.
The place was extremely precipitous: and there was a deep
gully below, into which dead bodies from the city, and the
offal of horses and beasts of burden that died, were accustomed
-- 522 --
to be thrown; and in this place therefore there was always a
great number of vultures and other birds collected. Having
observed, then, that when these creatures were gorged, they
always sat undisturbed upon the cliffs and the wall, he
concluded that the wall must necessarily be left unguarded and
deserted for the larger part of the day. Accordingly, under
cover of night, he went to the spot and carefully examined the
possibilities of approaching it and setting ladders; and finding
that this was possible at one particular rock, he communicated
the facts to the king.
