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a Zacyntho insula dicuntur, mixtique etiam ab Ardea U. C. 536. Rutulorum quidam generis. Ceterum in tantas brevi A. C. 218.

Ægos Potamos, and that of the Turkish prisoners at Jaffa by the French.

The siege of Tyre by Alexander of Macedon, and that of Syracuse by Marcellus, also present interesting examples of ingenuity in attack and defence. In these we find, as new features, the effects of rolling towers, and a blockade by sea. Tyre was besieged immediately after the battle of Issus. The town was situated on an island, and, as the Phoenician fleet was formidable, the Macedonians undertook the labour of running out a mole, which, from the description given by Q. Curtius (iv. 3.) and Arrian (ii. 19.), must have closely resembled the Plymouth Breakwater. The workmen were galled by missiles from the walls, which were about 150 feet high, (nearly the height of the fortifica tions of Malta;) and the towers which they built for their protection, and covered with raw hides as a defence against fire-spears, were burned by the brûlots of the Tyrians. At length, the mole itself, being floored with timber, was set on fire; and just as the Macedonians were about to raise the siege in despair, their fleet was sufficiently reinforced to attempt the place by sea. Towers were now raised on boats, to command the walls; and these again were outbuilt by others erected on the walls; artificial banks were constructed to prevent boats from contact with the sea-walls, and these were removed under showers of missiles from the towers: the ships' cables were cut by divers, and replaced by iron chains. At last, a breach was effected on the south (the sea) side, and the assault successfully led by Alexander in person.

By far the most singular of all such contests, was that maintained by Archimedes against Cl. Marcellus. In this case the assaulting galleries raised on ships were broken by loaded levers, to which a rotatory motion was imparted, so that they acted like slings: ships were raised

into the air by levers and cranes, and when let fall suddenly, were swamped, or set on fire by burning lenses. Missiles of crushing weight were cast from the walls by engines before unknown; and the walls themselves were bored with loop-holes, through which the assailants alone could be wounded. The town was eventually taken on the land side, through the negligence of a sentry.

Passing on to a more interesting period, the interval of transition from the ancient to the modern system, we find, mingled together, all the chivalrous adventure of the classic times, and the recently discovered, but yet undeveloped, agencies of science, and ancient and modern engineering curiously alternating. The best examples of sieges of this character are perhaps those of Leyden, Haerlem, and ́Ostend, in the Dutch war with Spain at the close of the sixteenth century. When the inhabitants of Leyden were reduced to such extremity of suffering by famine and pestilence, that conspiracies were formed for surrendering to the royalists, whose fortresses formed a cordon around them; the startling suggestion of inundating the city, in order to drown the Spaniards, and give access to their own fleet laden with provisions, was made by Admiral Brissot, and unanimously adopted. The ditches were cut; the floodtide, on which they had calculated, rolled in; and the city assumed the appearance of a large raft partially sunk. The Dutch vessels in the mean time floated round the walls, and their gun-boats destroyed the Spanish forts, of which the upper stories alone were visible. This sacrifice recalls to mind the abandonment of their city by the Athenians before the battle of Salamis; while both are surpassed in interest by the voluntary destruction of Moscow by its inhabitants in 1812.

At Ostend, which is similarly situated with Leyden, a considerable number of the assailants were

U.C. 536. creverant opes, seu maritimis, seu terrestribus fructibus, seu A. C. 218. multitudinis incremento, seu sanctitate disciplinæ, qua

fidem socialem usque ad perniciem suam coluerunt. Hannibal, infesto exercitu ingressus fines, pervastatis passim agris, urbem tripartito aggreditur. Angulus muri erat1 in planiorem patentioremque, quam cetera circa, vallem vergens. Adversus eum vineas agere instituit, per quas aries moenibus admoveri posset. Sed ut locus procul muro satis æquus agendis vineis fuit; ita haudquaquam prospere, postquam ad effectum operis ventum est, cœptis succedebat. Et turris ingens imminebat: et murus, ut in suspecto loco, supra ceteræ modum altitudinis emunitus erat: et juventus delecta, ubi plurimum periculi ac laboris ostendebatur, ibi vi majore obsistebant. Ac primo missilibus summovere hostem, nec quicquam satis tutum munientibus pati.

drowned by drawing the sluices and
flooding a channel which they had
forded in approaching the walls.
The defence was so obstinately
maintained by retrenching, (i. e. by
opposing new barriers inside those
which were successfully destroyed, as
at Saguntum,) that a surrender was
at length made; only however when
there remained nothing more to
defend; and, when the besiegers
entered, they found only a confused
heap of ruins, in which it was im-
possible to distinguish the site of
any remarkable building.

The capture and devastation of
Magdeburg in the thirty years' war
was another obstinate struggle, the
description of which by Harte (in
the Life of Gustavus Adolphus)
will amply repay the trouble of
perusal. It was here that the suc-
cessful commander (General Tilly)
repeated over the scattered ruins
the line from Virgil,

"Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria Parthenopæ," substituting for the name in the original, Parthenope, which is a literal translation of Magdeburg, signifying "the maiden city." It was the same sentiment of pity for fallen greatness that reminded Mo. hammed II. when walking over the ruins of Constantinople, of the lines of Sadi,

“The spider weaves his web in the halls of

the kings,

"And the owl keeps watch upon the towers
of Afrasiab,'

and softened Marcellus and Scipio to tears over the ruins of Syracuse and Carthage.

But, of all the sieges of later times, no one presents more points of resemblance to that of Saguntum, than the second siege of Saragoza, where, as described by Napier, every house was a fortress, the end of every street a battery; where the subterranean operations were almost as extensive as those on the surface, and every foot of ground was disputed, even after the fortifications were crumbled down.

3 Seu sanctitate disciplinæ, &c.] "Or, by that integrity of moral principle, with which they maintained their loyalty as allies, even to their own destruction."

4 Angulus muri erat.] The verb is not to be taken with vergens, which would be contrary to the Latin idiom; but thus, "There was an angle of the wall, abutting upon a plain,"

&c.

5 Sed ut locus-ita &c. "But although the ground at a distance from the walls was sufficiently level for the erection of mantelets; still, when they came to actual operations, it did not" &c.

For this three reasons are assigned, viz. "a high tower commanded it; the wall, as the situation was exposed, had been raised above the average of its height in other places; and, the flower of the troops," &c.

8.

Deinde jam non pro moenibus modo atque turri tela micare, U. C. 536. sed ad erumpendum etiam in stationes operaque hostium A. C. 218. animus erat: quibus tumultuariis certaminibus haud ferme plures Saguntini cadebant, quam Poni. Ut vero Hannibal ipse, dum murum incautius subit, adversum femur tragula graviter ictus cecidit; tanta circa fuga ac trepidatio fuit, ut non multum abesset, quin opera ac vineæ desererentur. Obsidio deinde per paucos dies magis, quam oppugnatio, fuit, dum vulnus ducis curaretur: per quod tempus ut quies certaminum erat, ita ab apparatu operum ac munitionum nihil cessatum. Itaque acrius de integro obortum est bellum, pluribusque partibus, vix accipientibus quibusdam opera locis, vineæ coeptæ agi, admoverique aries. Abundabat multitudine hominum Poenus; ad centum enim quinquaginta millia habuisse in armis satis creditur. Oppidani ad omnia tuenda atque obeunda multifariam distineri cœpti sunt: et non sufficiebant'., Jam enim feriebantur arietibus muri, quassatæque multæ partes erant. Una continentibus ruinis nudaverat urbem: tres deinceps turres, quantumque inter eas muri erat, cum fragore ingenti prociderant: captumque oppidum ea ruina crediderant Pœni; qua, velut si3 pariter utrosque murus texisset, ita utrimque in pugnam procursum est. Nihil tumultuariæ pugnæ simile erat, quales in oppugnationibus urbium per occasionem partis alterius conseri solent: sed justæ acies, velut patenti campo, inter ruinas muri tectaque urbis modico distantia intervallo constiterant. Hinc spes, hinc desperatio animos irritat: Poeno cepisse jam se urbem, si paullulum annitatur, credente; Saguntinis pro nudata moenibus patria corpora opponentibus, nec ullo pedem referente, ne in relictum a se locum hostem immitteret. Itaque quo acrius et conferti magis utrimque pugnabant, eo plures vulnerabantur, nullo inter arma corporaque vano intercidente telo. Falarica erat Saguntinis, missile telum hastili abiegno, et cetera tereti,

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walls, too, were beginning to give
way.'

2 Una (pars sc.) continentibus
ruinis &c.] "One portion had
exposed the city by an extended
breach."

3 Quá (ruiná sc.) velut si.] “At which fall (whereupon) a rush to battle took place on both sides, as though" &c.

Per occasionem partis alterius.] "As an opportunity was offered on either side."

5 Falarica erat Saguntinis.] "The Saguntines had (or, used) the firelance," &c. The description of this

U. C. 536. præterquam ad extremum, unde ferrum exstabat. Id, sicut
A. C. 218. in pilo, quadratum stuppa circumligabant, linebantque pice.

9.

Ferrum autem tres longum habebat pedes, ut cum armis
transfigere corpus posset. Sed id maxime, etiamsi hæsisset
in scuto, nec penetrasset in corpus, pavorem faciebat;
quod, quum medium accensum mitteretur, conceptumque
ipso motu multo majorem ignem ferret, arma omitti cogebat,
nudumque militem ad insequentes ictus præbebat. Quum
diu anceps fuisset certamen, et Saguntinis, quia præter
spem resisterent, crevissent animi; Poenus, quia non
vicisset, pro victo esset: clamorem repente oppidani tollunt,
hostemque in ruinas muri expellunt; inde impeditum tre-
pidantemque exturbant; postremo fusum fugatumque in
castra redigunt.

Interim ab Roma legatos venisse nuntiatum est: quibus obviam ad mare missi ab Hannibale, qui dicerent, nec tuto eos adituros inter tot tam efferatarum gentium arma: nec Hannibali, in tanto discrimine rerum, operæ esse' legationes audire. Apparebat, non admissos protinus Carthaginem ituros. Literas igitur nuntiosque ad principes factionis Barcinæ præmittit, ut præpararent suorum animos, ne 10. quid pars altera gratificari pro Romanis posset. Itaque, præterquam quod admissi auditique sunt, ea quoque vana atque irrita legatio fuit. Hanno unus adverso senatu causam fœderis, magno silentio propter auctoritatem suam, non assensu audientium, egit. Per deos, foederum arbitros ac 'testes, monuisse, prædixisse' se, ne Hamilcaris progeniem 'ad exercitum mitterent.. Non Manes, non stirpem ejus 'conquiescere viri: nec unquam, donec sanguinis nominis'que Barcini quisquam supersit, quietura Romana fœdera2.

in the text may probably need ex-
planation. The handle (hastile) was
round (teres), except at the end
where the blade was inserted: that
extremity (id), which was square,
like the same part of the javelin,
was bandaged with hemp; and the
blade was three feet long, &c.
"But this circumstance especially
(id maxime) rendered it formidable,
even without its penetrating the
body; that, as it was thrown half on
fire (medium accensum), and ga-
thered much more fire, kindled by
its flight, it obliged," &c.

6 Pœnus, quia non vicisset, &c.]
"This clause, as well as the two
preceding, follows the conjunction,
SC. "and as the Carthaginian was
regarded as defeated, because he
had not succeeded."

7 Nec Hannibali-opera esse. "And that Hannibal had no time," &c.

8 Gratificari pro Romanis.] "To cultivate interest on behalf of the Romans." The text is considered corrupt by Perizonius, who proposes to remove either pro or Romanis; regarding the former as the initials (p. Ro.) of populo Romano; and the latter as a marginal note, explaining them.

9 Magno silentio ] Silentium signifies here, absence of opposition, "deference."

1 Monuisse, prædixisse.] "That he had" (on a former occasion) "advised and warned them," &c.

2 Quietura Romana fœdera.] "Their treaties with Rome would never be safe from violation."

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'Juvenem flagrantem cupidine regni, viamque unam ad id U. C. 536. cernentem, si ex bellis bella serendo succinctus armis A. C. 218. 'legionibusque vivat, velut materiam igni præbentes, ad exercitus misistis3. Aluistis ergo hoc incendium, quo 6 nunc ardetis. Saguntum vestri circumsident exercitus, 'unde arcentur foedere: mox Carthaginem circumsidebunt 'Romanæ legiones, ducibus iisdem diis, per quos priore bello rupta foedera sunt ulti. Utrum hostem, an vos', an fortunam utriusque populi ignoratis? Legatos, ab sociis et pro sociis venientes, bonus imperator vester in castra non admisit, jus gentium sustulit. Hi tamen, unde ne hostium quidem legati arcentur, pulsi ad vos veniunt, res ex fœdere repetunt. Publica fraus absit; auctorem culpæ et reum 'criminis deposcunt. Quo lenius agunt, segnius incipiunt; eo, quum coeperint, vereor, ne perseverantius sæviant. Egates insulas Erycemque ante oculos proponite: quæ 'terra marique per quattuor et viginti annos passi sitis. 'Nec puer hic dux erat, sed pater ipse Hamilcar, Mars alter, 'ut isti volunt. Sed tunc Tarento, id est Italia, non ab'stinueramus ex foedere : sicut nunc Sagunto non abstine'mus. Vicerunt ergo dii hominesque; et id, de quo verbis 'ambigebatur, uter populus foedus rupisset', eventus belli, 'velut æquus judex, unde jus stabat, ei victoriam dedit. 'Carthagini nunc Hannibal vineas turresque admovet: 'Carthaginis mœnia quatit ariete, Sagunti ruinæ (falsus

3 Juvenem-misistis.] It will be observed, that the historian makes a transition from the oratio obliqua; and, through the rest of the speech, seems to report the actual words of Hanno.

4 Utrum hostem, an vos, &c.] Observe the emphasis, "Is it your enemy, or yourselves, or," &c.

5 Hi tamen, unde.] Before unde, which is a relative, we must understand inde with pulsi; sc. "refused admittance (there) whence even the ambassadors of enemies are not excluded;" or, unde may be regarded as a relative to vos; "to you, by whom," &c. or, "coming from a place (sc. from Rome) whence," &c.

6 Sed Tarento.] Hanno's argument is this: when we suffered so many losses under a commander, such as his party represent Hamilcar to have been, are we not infatuated to incur the chance of their repetition, under a less experienced general, and of being punished for our pre

sent assault on Saguntum, as we
were for our interference in the
affairs of Tarentum? It does not ap-
pear, however, that any act of hostility
had been committed on that occasion
by Carthage. When the Taren-
tines were besieged by Papirius,
they secretly invited the assistance
of the Carthaginians, who sent a
fleet from Sicily; but Milo, the com-
mander of the garrison, had in the
mean time effected an arrangement
with the besiegers; and having
secured his own retreat, and that of
the Epirote garrison, left the citizens
to their fate.

7 Id, de quo verbis ambigebatur, uter
populus fœdus rupisset.] This clause
is parenthetic; thus, "and (with re-
spect to the subject of the verbal
discussion, as to which nation had
broken the truce)" &c.

8 Carthagini-Carthaginis.] The emphatic position of these words requires a prominent position for them in translation; thus,

"It is to

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