Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

SIEGE DEVICES. 75walls of contravallatlon ai-ound and facing the town ; sometimesby additional walls of circumvallation built outsideand at a suitable distance from the first and facing away fromthe town, to hold an army of relief in check. In regularsieges they first established camps at appropriate intervalsand joined them with works ; then cleared the walls of theirdefenders with catapults or ballistas, built covered waystowards the wall, threw up huge sloping mounds to commandit, filled the ditch, which they approached under cover of movablescreens and sheds, and undermined the wall, or brokeit down with rams. A breach made, it was stormed. Butcatapults and ballistas were apparently not known untilPeloponnesian war. The catapidt — or cannon of the ancients— was a species of huge bow, capable of throwing pikesweighing from ten to three hundred pounds over half a mile.The ballista — or mortar— threw heavy stones, or flights ofthearrows, or other substances, with accurateaim to a considerabledistance.Rams were at first mere iron-pointed beams handled bymen. They were later swungin heavy framework, and hungon ropes or chains.They weregenerally placed in coveredbuildingsmounted on wheels,which were then slowly pushedup against the walls by menwith levers.Mines were commonly openedfrom a distance and dug to a point under the walls, andwere there sustained by wooden piles. The chambers werefilled with combustibles, and being set on fire, they baked,crumbled and dropped the earth, and thus the heavy wallabove it.Hand Ram.