 After a lengthy eight-month siege which brought great hardship onto the defenders through hunger, and with parleys in progress, an Iberian captain named Moeriscus, one of the three prefects of Achradina, decided to save his own life by letting the Romans in near the Fountains of Arethusa.On the agreed signal, during a diversionary attack, he opened the gate.After setting guards on the houses of the pro-Roman faction, Marcellus gave Syracuse to plunder.