pult, or rather the _balista_ of the
Romans. [PLATE CXI., Fig. 1.] This engine, which was of great height,
and threw stones of a large size, was protected, like the ram, by a
framework, apparently of wood, covered with canvas, felt, or hides. The
stones thrown from the engine were of irregular shape, and it was able
to discharge several at the same time. The besiegers worked it from a
mound or inclined plane, which enabled them to send their missiles to
the top of the ramparts. It had to be' brought very close to the walls
in order to be effective--a position which gave the besieged an
opportunity of assailing it by fire. Perhaps it was this liability which
caused the infrequent use of the engine in question, which is rare upon
the earlier, and absent from the later, sculptures.

The third mode of attack employed by the Assyrians in their sieges of
fortified places was the mine. While the engines were in full play, and
the troops drawn up around the place assailed the defenders of the walls
with their slings and bows, warriors, singly, or in twos and threes,
advanced stealthily to the foot of the ramparts, and either with their
swords and the points of their spears, or with implements better suited
for the purpose, such as crowbars and pickaxes, attacked the foundations
of the walls, endeavoring to remove the stones one by one, and so to
force an entrance. While thus employed, the assailant commonly either
held his shield above him as a protection or was guarded by the shield
of a comrade; or, finally, if he carried the curved _gerrhon_, leant it
against the wall, and then placed himself under its shelter. [PLATE CX.,
Fig. 2.] Sometimes, however, he dispensed with the protection of a
shield altogether, and, trusting his helmet and coat of mail, which
covered him at all vital points, pursued his labor without paying any
attention to the weapons aimed at him by the enemy.

Occasionally the efforts of the besiegers were directed against the
gates, which they endeavored to break open with axes, or to set on fire
by an application of the torch. From this latter circumstance we may
gather that the gates were ordinarily of wood, not, like those of
Babylon and Veii, of brass. In the hot climate of Southern Asia wood
becomes so dry by exposure to the sun that the most solid doors may
readily be ignited and consumed.

[Illustration: PLATE 111]

When at last the city or castle was by some of these means reduced, and
the garris