ll, and occupied a citadel close to the wall, erected on the level
summit of a ragged hill, of which the centre, rising up to a great
height in its round circle, resembled an Argive shield, except that in
the north it was not quite round, but at that point it was protected by
a precipice which ran sheer down into the Euphrates; the walls were
built of baked bricks and bitumen, a combination which is well known to
be the strongest of all materials.

13. And now the savage soldiery, having traversed the city, which they
found empty, were fighting fiercely with the defenders who poured all
kinds of missiles on them from the citadel. Being hard pressed by the
catapults and balistae of our men, they also raised on the height huge
bows of great power, the extremities of which, rising high on each side,
could only be bent slowly; but the string, when loosed by violent
exertion of the fingers, sent forth iron-tipped arrows with such force
as to inflict fatal wounds on any one whom they struck.

14. Nevertheless, the fight was maintained on both sides with showers of
stones thrown by the hand, and as neither gained any ground a fierce
contest was protracted from daybreak to nightfall with great obstinacy;
and at last they parted without any advantage to either side. The next
day the fight was renewed with great violence, and numbers were slain on
each side, and still the result was even; when the emperor, being eager
amid this reciprocal slaughter to try every chance, being guarded by a
solid column, and defended from the arrows of the enemy by their closely
packed shields, rushed forward with a rapid charge up to the enemy's
gates, which were faced with stout iron.

15. And although he was still in some danger, being hard pressed with
stones and bullets and other weapons, still he cheered on his men with
frequent war-cries while they were preparing to force in the gates in
order to effect an entrance, and did not retreat till he found himself
on the point of being entirely overwhelmed by the mass of missiles
which were poured down on him.

16. However, he came off safe with only a few of his men slightly
wounded; not without feeling some modest shame at being repulsed. For he
had read that Scipio AEmilianus, with the historian Polybius, a citizen
of Megalopolis in Arcadia, and thirty thousand soldiers, had, by a
similar attack, forced the gate of Carthage.

17. But the account given by the old writers may serve to defend th