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 . to the other end of the boom. Bythis device, a party or forlorn hope could be raised to theheight of the wall, clamber upon it and attack its defenders. In defending a town, the besieged adopted every meansby which the access of the enemys soldiers could be pre-vented. They had forked poles with which to push away theladders which the besiegers placed in position; they were sup-plied with vessels which they could
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 . to the other end of the boom. Bythis device, a party or forlorn hope could be raised to theheight of the wall, clamber upon it and attack its defenders. In defending a town, the besieged adopted every meansby which the access of the enemys soldiers could be pre-vented. They had forked poles with which to push away theladders which the besiegers placed in position; they were sup-plied with vessels which they could speedily heat so as to pourboiling oil, or pitch, or red-hot sand upon the scalers; or else DEVICES USED BY BESIEGED. 179 materials which rendered the air impure were thrown downupon the besiegers works. The mound was often under-mined as fast as built. A second wall, or curtain, or half-moon, was sometimes built behind the place selected by theenemy for operating a breach, so that he found himself con-fronted with new labors so soon as he had completed the were raised on the walls to dominate those of thebesiegers. Efforts were unremitting to set the work of the. Telenon 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 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 180 FIELD FORTIFICATION. machines nevertheless were capable of doing remarkably effi-cient work. Field fortifications were rarely employed by the Greeks-These were usual
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade189, booksubjectmilitaryartandscience
