ut the
Carthaginians had piled up such an abundance of materials on the inside
that the leaves did not open. They remained standing.

Then they drove augers against the walls; these were applied to the
joints of the blocks, so as to detach the latter. 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. In order that the twin tensions might completely
correspond, the ropes as they were tightened were struck on the right
and left alternately until both sides gave out an equal sound. Spendius
would mount upon the timbers. He would strike the ropes softly with
the extremity of his foot, and strain his ears like a musician tuning
a lyre. Then when the beam of the catapult rose, when the pillar of the
ballista trembled with the shock of the spring, when the stones were
shooting in rays, and the darts pouring in streams, he would incline his
whole body and fling his arms into the air as though to follow them.

The soldiers admired his skill and executed his commands. In the gaiety
of their work they gave utterance to jests on the names of the machines.
Thus the plyers for seizing the rams were called "wolves," and the
galleries were covered with "vines"; they were lambs, or they were going
to gather the grapes; and as they loaded their pieces they would say to
the onagers: "Come, pick well!" and to the scorpions: "Pierce them
to the heart!" These jokes, which were ever the same, kept up their
courage.

Nevertheless the machines did not demolish the rampart. It was formed of
two walls and was completely filled with earth. The upper portions were
beaten down, but each time the besieged raised them again. Matho ordered
the construction of wooden towers which should be as high as the towers
of stone. They cast turf, stakes, pebbles and chariots with their wheels
into the trench so as to fill it up the more quickly; but before this
was accomplished the immense throng of the Barbarians undulated over the
plain with a single movement and came beating against the foot of the
walls like an overflowing sea.

They moved forward the rope ladders, straight ladders, and sambucas,
the latter consisting of two poles from which a series of bamboos
terminating in a moveable bridge were lowered by means