brought up to the walls every kind of engine for besieging cities.

34. And an attempt made with so much energy would have succeeded, had
it not been for one person then at Syracuse. That person was
Archimedes, a man of unrivalled skill in observing the heavens and the
stars, but more deserving of admiration as the inventor and
constructor of warlike engines and works, by means of which, with a
very slight effort, he turned to ridicule what the enemy effected with
great difficulty. The wall which ran along unequal eminences, most of
which were high and difficult of access, some low and open to approach
along level vales, he furnished with every kind of warlike engine, as
seemed suitable to each particular place. Marcellus attacked from the
quinqueremes the wall of the Achradina, which, as before stated, was
washed by the sea. From the other ships the archers and slingers and
light infantry, whose weapon is difficult to be thrown back by the
unskilful, allowed scarce any person to remain upon the wall
unwounded. These, as they required room for the discharge of their
missiles, kept their ships at a distance from the wall. Eight more
quinqueremes joined together in pairs, the oars on their inner sides
being removed, so that side might be placed to side, and which forming
as it were ships, were worked by means of the oars on the outer sides,
carried turrets built up in stories, and other engines employed in
battering walls. Against this naval armament, Archimedes placed on
different parts of the walls engines of various dimensions. Against
the ships which were at a distance he discharged stones of immense
weight. Those which were nearer he assailed with lighter, and
therefore more numerous missiles. Lastly, in order that his own men
might heap their weapons upon the enemy, without receiving any wounds
themselves, he perforated the wall from the top to the bottom with a
great number of loop-holes, about a cubit in diameter, through which
some with arrows, others with scorpions of moderate size, assailed the
enemy without being seen. Certain ships which came nearer to the walls
in order to get within the range of the engines, he placed upon their
sterns, raising up their prows by throwing upon them an iron grapple,
attached to a strong chain, by means of a tolleno which projected from
the wall, and overhung them, having a heavy counterpoise of lead which
forced back the lever to the ground; then the grapple being suddenly
di