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 . d two hundred and eighty-six feethigh, and to have surmounted it by structures one hundredand fifty-five feet higher. These figures may possibly failsomewhat of accuracy. They sound exaggerated even whenwe remember the walls of Babylon. But the enormous sizeof these structures is well established. Instead of mounds, towers alone were often built, as theycould be more quickly constructed. The size of these seemseq
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 . d two hundred and eighty-six feethigh, and to have surmounted it by structures one hundredand fifty-five feet higher. These figures may possibly failsomewhat of accuracy. They sound exaggerated even whenwe remember the walls of Babylon. But the enormous sizeof these structures is well established. Instead of mounds, towers alone were often built, as theycould be more quickly constructed. The size of these seemsequally fabulous. They are said to have been sometimestwenty stories in height, and the ordinary towers had tenstories. The carpentry in them must have been story was filled with armed men, and had loopholesfrom which these could shoot missiles at the besieged on thewalls. These towers rested on a number of wheels, verybroad and solid, and required many hundred men to movethem. Demetrius Poliorcetes, at Rhodes, according to Dio-dorus, had one made by Epimachus of Athens, which wasseventy-five feet square, one hundred and fifty feet high, and 176 MOVING THE Tower with Drawbridge and Ram. rested on eiaht wheels wliose felloes were six feet wide andheavily ironed, as was also the tower. It took three thou-sand four hundred men to move it, worldng no doubt inrelays. These towers were of course pushed forward y&rjslowly and probably by levers applied to the wheels from theinside. Plutarch says that it took a month to move a bigtower two hundred and fifty paces. Diodorus states that theycould be moved one thousand paces in less time. The raisingand moving of buildings to-day explains to a certain extenthow all this was done. The towers contained reservoirs of RAMS AND MINES. 177 water to quench fires which the bcsiegetl might set. Generallythe battering-ranis were slung in the lower story; the enginesstood in the middle ones; the soldiers occupied the upperstori
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade189, booksubjectmilitaryartandscience
