e
structure together; above this the rafters were raised, with an
elevation of twelve feet; a beam set above the rafters united their
joinings. They also had bridgings fastened transversely, and a flooring
laid on them protected the parts beneath.

4. It had, moreover, a middle flooring on girts, where scorpiones and
catapults were placed. There were set up, also, two framed uprights
forty-five feet long, a foot and a half in thickness, and three quarters
of a foot in breadth, joined at the tops by a mortised crossbeam and by
another, halfway up, mortised into the two shafts and tied in place by
iron plates. Above this was set, between the shafts and the crossbeams,
a block pierced on either side by sockets, and firmly fastened in place
with clamps. In this block were two axles, turned on a lathe, and ropes
fastened from them held the ram.

5. Over the head of these (ropes) which held the ram, was placed a
parapet fitted out like a small tower, so that, without danger, two
soldiers, standing in safety, could look out and report what the enemy
were attempting. The entire ram had a length of one hundred and eighty
feet, a breadth at the base of a foot and a quarter, and a thickness of
a foot, tapering at the head to a breadth of a foot and a thickness of
three quarters of a foot.

6. This ram, moreover, had a beak of hard iron such as ships of war
usually have, and from the beak iron plates, four in number, about
fifteen feet long, were fastened to the wood. From the head to the very
heel of the beam were stretched cables, three in number and eight digits
thick, fastened just as in a ship from stem to stern continuously, and
these cables were bound with cross girdles a foot and a quarter apart.
Over these the whole ram was wrapped with rawhide. The ends of the ropes
from which the ram hung were made of fourfold chains of iron, and these
chains were themselves wrapped in rawhide.

7. Likewise, the projecting end of the ram had a box framed and
constructed of boards, in which was stretched a net made of rather large
ropes, over the rough surfaces of which one easily reached the wall
without the feet slipping. And this machine moved in six directions,
forward (and backward), also to the right or left, and likewise it was
elevated by extending it upwards and depressed by inclining it
downwards. The machine could be elevated to a height sufficient to throw
down a wall of about one hundred feet, and likewise in its thrust i