For he ordered the buildings nearest to the wall to be set on fire; and these being instantly in a blaze, those who, on another occasion, would have brought help to extinguish the fire, now helping to increase it, the roofs tumbled on the Romans; and not only fragments of the tiles, but also the half-burned timber, reached the soldiers: the flames spread wide, and the smoke caused a degree of terror even greater than the danger.

In consequence, the Romans who were without the city, and were just then making the principal attack, retired from the wall; and those who were within, fearing lest the fire, rising behind them, should put it out of their power to rejoin the rest of the army, began to retreat.

Whereupon Quinctius, seeing how matters stood, ordered a general retreat to be sounded .-- Thus, being at length recalled from a city which they had nearly taken, they returned to their camp.
40.

Quinctius, conceiving greater hopes from the fears of the enemy than from the immediate effect of his operations, kept them in a continual alarm during the three succeeding days; sometimes harassing them with assaults, sometimes enclosing several places with works, so as to leave no passage open for flight.

These menaces had such an effect on the tyrant that he again sent Pythagoras to solicit peace.
Quinctius, at first, rejected him with disdain, ordering him to quit the camp; but afterwards, on his suppliant entreaties, and throwing himself at his feet, he admitted him to an audience.