and its framework was a moveable tower containing soldiers, who at
once fought the enemy on a level, and protected the engine from their
attacks. Fire was the weapon usually turned against the ram, torches,
burning tow, or other inflammable substances being cast from the walls
upon its framework, which, wherever it was of ozier or of wood, could be
easily set alight and consumed. To prevent this result, the workers of
the ram were sometimes provided with a supply of water, which they could
direct through leathern or metal pipes against the combustibles. At
other times they sought to protect themselves by suspending from a pole
in front of their engine a curtain of cloth, leather, or some other
non-inflammable substance.

Another mode of meeting the attacks of the battering-ram was by catching
the point with a chain suspended by its two ends from the walls, and
then, when the ram was worked, diverting the stroke by drawing the head
upwards. To oppose this device, the besiegers provided some of their
number with strong metal hooks, and stationed them below the ram, where
they watched for the descent of the chain. As soon as ever it caught the
head of the ram, they inserted their hooks into its links, and then
hanging upon it with their whole weight, prevented its interference with
the stroke.

Battering-rams were frequently used against the walls from the natural
ground at their foot. Sometimes, however, the besiegers raised vast
mounds against the ramparts, and advanced their engines up these, thus
bringing theirs on a level with the upper and weaker portions of the
defences. Of this nature probably were the mounds spoken of in Scripture
as employed by the Babylonians and Egyptians, as well as the Assyrians,
in their sieges of cities. The intention was not so much to pile up the
mounds till they were on a level with the top of the walls as to work
the battering-ram with greater advantage from them. A similar use was
made of mounds by the Peloponnesian Greeks, who nearly succeeded in
taking Plataea in this way. The mounds were not always composed entirely
of earth; the upper portion was often made of several layers of stone or
brick, arranged in regular order, so as to form a sort of paved road, up
which the rams might be dragged with no great difficulty. Trees, too,
were sometimes cut down and built into the mound.

Besides battering-rams, the Assyrians appear to have been acquainted
with an engine resembling the cata