Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from earliest times to the battle of Ipsus, : with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Macedonian . t closely to the other arts and sciences; that is,call for the employment of more of the arts which chiefly areof use in peace. The methods of a siege, if the garrison can-not be starved out, are either to scale the walls or to makebreaches in them which can be carried by assault; and it isessential to do the latter with as little exposure to the enemysfire as possible. The besieged, on the other hand, must seekt
Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from earliest times to the battle of Ipsus, : with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Macedonian . t closely to the other arts and sciences; that is,call for the employment of more of the arts which chiefly areof use in peace. The methods of a siege, if the garrison can-not be starved out, are either to scale the walls or to makebreaches in them which can be carried by assault; and it isessential to do the latter with as little exposure to the enemysfire as possible. The besieged, on the other hand, must seekto destroy the besiegers means of accomplishing this, and toinflict what loss they can on them as a means of driving themfrom their purpose. The earliest means of attacking walls was by scaling-lad-ders. These were first used at the siege of the Seven against 172 SCALING WALLS. Thebes, and Campaneus, one of the kings and their inventor,is said to have lost his life in falling from one of his own lad-ders. A later means was the tortoise, made, as has been al-ready described, by joining together buclders, or shields, abovethe heads of a massed force, on which a second party conld. Scaling- Ladders. stand to scale the walls or form a second tortoise for thescalers. But these crude methods soon gave way to moreregular means, which aimed at making a defense againstsorties from within and against relief from without, at erect-ing a shelter from the enemys fire and at organizing vigorousmeasures of attack. A wall of contravallation to inclose the town or fortress andkeep the garrison within its defenses was first built; then out- SHEDS AND MOUNDS. 173 side this a wall of circumvallation at a suitable distance andfacing outward to prevent a relieving army from interferingwith the operations of the besiegers. In front of the wall of contravallation mounds were erected,from which the walls ofthe town could be at-tacked. These were grad-ually thrown up underthe protection of mov-able scree
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade189, booksubjectmilitaryartandscience
