been mortised to one another, placing some upright and others crosswise,
so that the spaces between the intersections appear as a succession of
holes. And from every joint there projects a kind of beak, which
resembles very closely a thick goad. Then they fasten the cross-beams to
the two upright timbers, beginning at the top and letting them extend
half way down, and then lean the timbers back against the gates. And
whenever the enemy come up near them, those above lay hold of the ends
of the timbers and push, and these, falling suddenly upon the
assailants, easily kill with the projecting beaks as many as they may
catch. So Belisarius was thus engaged.

FOOTNOTES:

[103] Cf. The description of the ballista and other engines of war in
Ammianus Marcellinus, XXII. iv. The engine here described by Procopius
is the catapult of earlier times; the ballista hurled stones, not
arrows. See the Classical Dictionaries for illustrations.

[104] The "shaft" is a holder for the missile, and it (not the missile)
is driven by the bowstring. When the holder stops, the missile goes on.

[105] A popular etymology of [Greek: ballistra], a corrupted form of
[Greek: ballista]; the point is in the Greek words [Greek: ballo] +
[Greek: malista], an etymology correct only as far as [Greek: ballo] is
concerned.

[106] Called also "scorpions"; described by Ammianus, _l.c._

[107] This contrivance was not one familiar to classical times. The
"lupi" of Livy XXVIII. iii. were hooks; Vegetius, _De Re Militari_, ii.
25 and iv. 23, mentions "lupi" (also hooks), used to put a battering-ram
out of action.

XXII

On the eighteenth day from the beginning of the siege the Goths moved
against the fortifications at about sunrise under the leadership of
Vittigis in order to assault the wall, and all the Romans were struck
with consternation at the sight of the advancing towers and rams, with
which they were altogether unfamiliar. But Belisarius, seeing the ranks
of the enemy as they advanced with the engines, began to laugh, and
commanded the soldiers to remain quiet and under no circumstances to
begin fighting until he himself should give the signal. Now the reason
why he laughed he did not reveal at the moment, but later it became
known. The Romans, however, supposing him to be hiding his real feelings
by a jest, abused him and called him shameless, and were indignant that
he did not try to check the enemy as they came forward. But when the