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

DEVICES USED BY BESIEGED. 179materials which rendered the air impure were thrown downupon the besiegers' works. The mound was often underminedas fast as built. A second wall, or curtain, or halfmoon,was sometimes built behind the place selected by theenemy for operating a breach, so that he found himself confrontedwith new labors so soon as he had completed the first.Towers were raised on the walls to dominate those of thebesiegers. Efforts were unremitting to set the work of theTelenon and Mural Hook.besiegers on fire, by casting inflammable arrows with thecatapults and fire-pots with the ballista. Walls were protectedagainst the rams by aprons calculated to deaden the blow.These were made of wool mattresses, ropes and other soft ma,-terial. The rams were seized and picked up by huge tongsoperated from the wall, or were broken or unliinged byweights dropped on them from above.Sorties were constantly made to endeavor to burn the worksand disturb the besiegers. Apparently the ancients were asfertile in resources as we are to-day in the matter of siegesand if their artillery was less powerful than our own, their