Antigonus Deson, king of Macedon, had taken possession of the isthmus
and citadel of Corinth, which were called the fetters of Greece,
because he who was the master of them dominated over that country.
Aratus, chief of the Achæans, formed the project of depriving him of
this important place; and the following is the manner in which he had
the good fortune to succeed. Erginus, an inhabitant of Corinth, having
come to Sicyon, formed an intimacy with a well-known banker, a friend
of Aratus. In the course of conversation, they happened to speak of the
citadel of Corinth, and Erginus said that, going to see his brother
Diocles, who was in garrison there, he had remarked, on the steepest
side, a little path, cut crosswise in the rock, which led to a place
where the wall was very low. The banker asked him, with a laugh, if
he and his brother had a mind to make their fortunes? Erginus guessed
what he meant, and promised to sound his brother upon the subject. A
few days after he returned, and undertook to conduct Aratus to the
spot where the wall was not more than fifteen feet high, and, with his
brother, to aid him in the rest of the enterprise. Aratus promised
to give them sixty thousand crowns if the affair succeeded; but the
money must be deposited with the banker, for the security of the two
brothers, and as Aratus had it not, and would not borrow it for fear
of betraying his secret, the generous Achæan took the greater part of
his gold and silver plate, with his wife’s jewels, and placed them in
pledge with the banker, for the whole sum. Several accidents delayed
this noble enterprise; but nothing daunted the intrepid defenders of
liberty. When all was ready, Aratus ordered his troops to pass the
night under arms, and taking with him four hundred picked men, the
most part of whom were ignorant of what they were going to do, and
who carried ladders with them, he led them straight to the gates of
the city, by the side of the walls of the Temple of Juno. It was a
beautiful moonlight night, which made them justly fear they should be
discovered. Fortunately, there arose on the side towards the sea a
thick mist, which covered all the environs of the city, and created a
complete darkness. There all the troops sat down, and took off their
shoes, in order that they might make less noise in marching, and might
ascend the ladders better. In the mean time, Aratus, with seven brave,
determined young men, equipped as travellers, slipped into the city
without being perceived, and in the first place killed the sentinel and
the guards on duty. They then applied their ladders to the walls, and
Aratus made a hundred of the most resolute ascend with him, desiring
the others to follow as best they could. He drew up the ladders,
descended into the city, and, at the head of his troops, marched, full
of joy, straight towards the citadel, without being perceived. As
they advanced, they met a guard of four men, who carried a light. The
shade concealed the adventurers, and, crouching against some walls,
they waited for these soldiers, who, on passing before the Achæans,
were attacked all at once. Three of them lost their lives; the fourth,
wounded by a sword in the head, fled away crying that the enemy was
in the city. A moment after, all the trumpets sounded the alarm, and
the whole city was roused by the noise. The streets were soon filled
with people, who ran hither and thither; and were illuminated by a
multitude of flambeaux, which were lighted everywhere, both down in
the city, and upon the walls, the ramparts, and the citadel. Aratus,
without being dismayed, held on his way, climbing, with difficulty,
the steep sides of the rocks, from having missed the path which led
to the wall in a winding, circuitous manner. But, as if by a miracle,
the clouds passed from before the moon, and revealed to him the whole
labyrinth, till he had gained the bottom of the fortifications. Then,
by a similar fortunate chance, the clouds gathered again, and the moon
being concealed, replunged both besieged and besiegers into profound
darkness. The three hundred soldiers whom Aratus had left without, near
the Temple of Juno, having obtained entrance into the city, which they
found filled with confusion and tumult, and not being able to find the
path their leader had taken, clung close to the foot of a precipice,
under the shadow of a great rock which concealed them, and waited in
that retired place to see how fortune should dispose of their fate. The
general of the Achæans in the mean time was fighting valiantly upon the
ramparts of the citadel. They heard the noise of this combat, but could
not tell whence it came, from the cries of the warriors being repeated
a thousand times by the surrounding echoes. The Macedonians defended
themselves with vigour: Archelaus, who commanded for King Antigonus,
thought to overwhelm the Achæans by charging them in the rear. He
placed himself at the head of a good body of troops, and, with sound
of trumpet, marched against Aratus, filing before the three hundred
concealed soldiers, without seeing them. The Achæans allowed him to
pass on; then, rising all at once, as from an ambuscade in which they
had been placed on purpose, they fell upon his party, killed many of
them, put the rest to flight, and came to the succour of their general,
uttering loud cries of victory. The moon once again shone forth in its
splendour, and by favour of its light, the soldiers of Aratus united,
and made so vigorous a charge that they drove the enemy from the walls,
and when the first rays of the sun gleamed upon the citadel, it was as
if to shed glory upon their victory. The Corinthians flocked to the
standard of Aratus, who refused to sheath the sword till he had taken
prisoners all the soldiers of the king of Macedon, and thus secured
both his conquest and the liberty of Corinth.