the first line of defence, but only to find himself repelled by a far stronger barrier built up out of the houses on the lower part of the slope. Similar barriers might be indefinitely multiplied, and, though Philip was the last man in the world to allow himself to be beaten, he gave up the attempt as hopeless, after a siege of about three months.
His next step was one which it is not easy to understand. Having failed at Perinthus, he marched to Byzantium, and this he did with only a portion of his army, the remainder being left at Perinthus, that he might not seem to own himself altogether foiled. But how could he hope, under the circumstances, to succeed in the capturing such a city as Byzantium? He could do nothing by sea, as the Byzantine fleet was greatly superior to his own. And on the land side the fortifications at this time appear to have been singularly complete. The assailant would have to break through a double wall so formidable that Pausanias speaks of it as one of the strongest he had seen after the famous walls of Messene. Philip must have known that he had a very poor prospect of success, unless there might be a faction within which would favour his designs. A story was told, that after the siege had been raised, he wrote a letter to the Byzantines to the effect that, had he chosen to avail himself of a treacherous offer on the part of one of their distinguished citizens, he might have entered their city. He even mentioned the citizen by name, and the man, it is said, killed himself rather than fall a victim to the popular fury. Philip's statement, if really made by him, was
