that the whole length of the weapon was six feet nine inches.  It was used either to throw or thrust with, and when it pierced the enemy’s shield the iron head was bent, and the spear, owing to the twist in the iron, still held to the shield.  Each soldier carried two of these weapons, and threw the heavy pilum over the heads of their comrades in front, in order to break the enemy’s line.  In the time of the empire, when the legion was modified, the infantry wore cuirasses and helmets, and carried a sword and dagger.  The select infantry were armed with a long spear and a shield; the rest, with a pilum.  Each man carried a saw, a basket, a mattock, a hatchet, a leather strap, a hook, a chain, and provisions for three days.  The Equites (cavalry) wore helmets and cuirasses, like the infantry, having a broadsword at the right side, and in the hand a long pole.  A buckler swung at the horse’s flank.  They were also furnished with a quiver containing three or four javelins.

The artillery were used both for hurling missiles in battle, and for the attack on fortresses.  The tormentum, which was an elastic instrument, discharged stones and darts, and was held in general use until the discovery of gunpowder.  In besieging a city, the ram was employed for destroying the lower part of a wall, and the balista, which discharged stones, was used to overthrow the battlements.  The balista would project a stone weighing from fifty to three hundred pounds.  The aries, or battering-ram, consisted of a large beam made of the trunk of a tree, frequently one hundred feet in length, to one end of which was fastened a mace of iron or bronze resembling in form the head of a ram; it was often suspended by ropes from a beam fixed transversely over it, so that the soldiers were relieved from supporting its weight, and were able to give it a rapid and forcible swinging motion backward and forward.  When this machine was further perfected by rigging it upon wheels, and constructing over it a roof, so as to form a testudo, which protected the besieging party from the assaults of the besieged, there was no tower so strong, no wall so thick, as to resist a long-continued attack, the great length of the beam enabling the soldiers to work across the defensive ditch, and as many as one hundred men being often employed upon it.  The Romans learned from the Greeks the art of building this formidable engine, which was used with great effect by Alexander, but with still greater by Titus in the siege of Jerusalem; it was first used by the Romans in the siege of Syracuse.  The vinea was a sort of roof under which the soldiers protected themselves when they undermined walls.  The helepolis, also used in the attack on cities, was a square tower furnished with all the means of assault.  This also was a Greek invention; and the one used by Demetrius at the siege of Rhodes, B. C. 306, was one hundred and thirty-five feet high and sixty-eight wide, divided