the beginning of the siege, when
the confidence of our men began to fill the town with alarm, we
determined on bringing up a vast battering-ram, which, after having
destroyed Antioch with it sometime before, the Persians had left at
Carrhae; and as soon as that appeared, and was begun to be skilfully set
up, it cowed the spirits of the besieged, so that they were almost on
the point of surrendering, when they again plucked up courage and
prepared means for resisting this engine.

12. From this time neither their courage nor their ingenuity failed; for
as the ram was old, and it had been taken to pieces for the facility of
transporting it, so while it was being put together again, it was
attacked with great exertions and vigour by the garrison, and defended
with equal valour and firmness by the besiegers; and engines hurling
showers of stones, and slings, and missiles of all sorts, slew numbers
on each side. Meantime, high mounds rose up with speedy growth; and the
siege grew fiercer and sterner daily; many of our men being slain
because, fighting as they were under the eye of the emperor, and eager
for reward, they took off their helmets in order to be the more easily
recognized, and so with bare heads, were an easy mark for the skilful
archers of the enemy.

13. The days and nights being alike spent in watching, made each side
the more careful; and the Persians, being alarmed at the vast height to
which the mounds were now carried, and at the enormous ram, which was
accompanied by others of smaller size, made great exertions to burn
them, and kept continually shooting firebrands and incendiary missiles
at them; but their labour was vain, because the chief part of them was
covered with wet skins and cloths, and some parts also had been steeped
in alum, so that the fire might fall harmless upon them.

14. But the Romans, driving these rams on with great courage, although
they had difficulty in defending themselves, disregarded danger, however
imminent, in the hope of making themselves masters of the town.

15. And on the other hand, when the enormous ram was brought against the
tower to which it was applied, as if it could at once throw it down, the
garrison, by a clever contrivance, entangled its projecting iron head,
which in shape was like that of a ram, with long cords on both sides, to
prevent its being drawn back and then driven forward with great force,
and to hinder it from making any serious impression on th