and perplex them to the
last degree; and when these began to carry over their heads, he used
smaller engines graduated according to the range required from time to
time, and by this means caused so much confusion among them as to
altogether check their advance and attack; and finally Marcellus was
reduced in despair to bringing up his ships under cover of night. But
when they had come close to land, and so too near to be hit by the
catapults, they found that Archimedes had prepared another contrivance
against the soldiers who fought from the decks. He had pierced the
wall as high as a man's stature with numerous loop-holes, which, on
the outside, were about as big as the palm of the hand. Inside the
wall he stationed archers and cross-bows, or scorpions, and by the
volleys discharged through these he made the marines useless. By these
means he not only baffled the enemy, whether at a distance or close
at hand, but also killed the greater number of them. As often, too, as
they tried to work their Sambucae, he had engines ready all along the
walls, not visible at other times, but which suddenly reared
themselves above the wall from the inside, when the moment for their
use had come, and stretched their beams far over the battlements, some
of them carrying stones weighing as much as ten talents, and others
great masses of lead. So whenever the Sambucae were approaching, these
beams swung round on their pivot the required distance, and by means
of a rope running through a pulley dropt the stone, upon the Sambucae,
with the result that it not only smashed the machine itself to pieces,
but put the ship also and all on board into the most serious danger.

Other machines which he invented were directed against storming
parties, who, advancing under the protection of pent-houses, were
secured by them from being hurt by missiles shot through the walls.
Against these he either shot stones big enough to drive the marines
from the prow; or let down an iron hand swung on a chain, by which the
man who guided the crane, having fastened on some part of the prow
where he could get a hold, prest down the lever of the machine inside
the wall; and when he had thus lifted the prow and made the vessel
rest upright on its stern, he fastened the lever of his machine so
that it could not be moved; and then suddenly slackened the hand and
chain by means of a rope and pulley. The result was that many of the
vessels heeled over and fell on their s