The gates of Syracvsae as seen by the Roman Legions and their ultimate commander Consvl Manivs Valerivs Maximvs
At dawn on the day of the assault, the Romani would begin to deploy their siege equipment with hopes that it would be enough to easily storm the city and win the day
The Roman advance upon the walls would be greatly contested, however, with many men fighting to the death upon the great stone walls
The fighting was fierce early in the day as nearly no advance was made by either side
The Romani would actually be forced back upon the gate towers by the relentless Syracvsan defenders
Many different 'pockets' of fighting would open up along the walls of the city...
...and around the base of the walls as well
The initial Roman force at the gates of the city would fight back strong, however, and force a panic amongst some of the men stationed at the gate tower to defend it...
...and when a second force was ordered to scale the walls to relieve the first wave, the Romani began to push the defenders out of the northwestern portion of the city
Following this advance were a chain of successes for the Romani:
Capturing the gateway was key for the Romani as they could cycle in fresh troops to relieve those there since the early part of the day
The Roman Consvl Manivs Valerivs Maximvs would move his bodyguard closer to the front to inspect the fighting and pace of the battle for himself.
By this point in the day, it was already well past highnoon and the Romani had only captured a small segment of the city while taking relatively heavy losses. Understanding that he could not afford a Pyrrhic Victory at this stage in the conflict, Manivs Valerivs Maximvs ordered a final push before withdrawing his troops in order to send a bloody message to Heiro: Make peace with Roma or you and your city will fall.
The Romani show their impressive strength within the city to many local Syracvsan levy garrisons. This would prove to be effective in the diplomatic talks that would ensue following the Siege.
Many of Heiro's troops fell back to the center of the city to regroup and prepare for another Roman advance. Both Consvles had convened in this time and decided to withdraw from the city, however, sensing that night was going to be approaching shortly. They knew that the losses would be much too heavy to try and take the city by force entirely (and even if they did, many of the locals may not even respect their new conquerors).