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The catapultas and ballistas, and every other instrument of war were carried; likewise the rich ornaments laid up by its kings during a long continuance of peace; a quantity of wrought silver and brass, and other articles, with precious garments, and a number of celebrated statues, with which Syracuse had been adorned in such a manner as to rank among the chief Grecian cities in that respect.
It is separated from the fells, or rugged hills, which form the northern boundary of the wide vale of Hayde, by a space of about two or three hundred yards; sufficiently wide to place it, in the days of cross-bows and ballistas, pretty well beyond the reach of insult, but by far too narrow to be of the slightest avail against cannon, and even musketry.
The camp having been plundered, the Apollonians removed into their city the catapults, ballistas, and other engines which had been got together for the purpose of assaulting their city, for the protection of their walls, in case at any time a similar conjuncture should arise; all the rest of the plunder which the camp afforded was given up to the Romans.
This metal plate was released by a spring, and sliding in grooves impelled the arrows. The catapults were likewise called onagers, after the wild asses which fling up stones with their feet, and the ballistas scorpions, on account of a hook which stood upon the tablet, and being lowered by a blow of the fist, released the spring.
The engines were better managed, the men serving them were divided into squads, and they were worked from morning till evening without interruption and with the monotonous precision of a weaver's loom. Spendius returned to them untiringly. It was he who stretched the skeins of the ballistas.
A furious resistance immediately began. Trunks of trees fastened to cables fell and rose alternately and battered the rams; cramps hurled by the ballistas tore away the roofs of the huts; and streams of flints and pebbles poured from the platforms of the towers. At last the rams broke the gates of Khamon and Tagaste.
They pushed forward galleries formed of hurdles of green reeds, and oaken semicircles like enormous shields gliding on three wheels; the workers were sheltered in little huts covered with raw hides and stuffed with wrack; the catapults and ballistas were protected by rope curtains which had been steeped in vinegar to render them incombustible.
The camp of the Christians was summoned to arms by the trumpets on the 14th of July, 1099. Men and machines began their awful task. The air was full of flints hurled to the walls by ballistas and mangonels. Under large shields and covered galleries, the battering-rams approached the walls. A cloud of arrows swept the ramparts, and the ladders were erected at the most promising points.
As for their machines, they cannot have many of them." "They had something like a score of waggons with them, Tom; these would carry the beams for half a dozen big ballistas; besides, they have their cannon."
Repairing the fleet. Battering-rams. Modern ordnance. The methods of war in ancient times. Catapultas. Ballistas. Maginalls. The religious observances of tyrants. Richard's penitence and penance. Was he sincere?
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