The slaves were armed, the arsenals were emptied, and every citizen had his own post and his own employment.  Twelve hundred of the fugitives had survived, and the Suffet made them all captains; and carpenters, armourers, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths were intrusted with the engines.  The Carthaginians had kept a few in spite of the conditions of the peace with Rome.  These were repaired.  They understood such work.

The two northern and eastern sides, being protected by the sea and the gulf, remained inaccessible.  On the wall fronting the Barbarians they collected tree-trunks, mill-stones, vases filled with sulphur, and vats filled with oil, and built furnaces.  Stones were heaped up on the platforms of the towers, and the houses bordering immediately on the rampart were crammed with sand in order to strengthen it and increase its thickness.

The Barbarians grew angry at the sight of these preparations.  They wished to fight at once.  The weights which they put into the catapults were so extravagantly heavy that the beams broke, and the attack was delayed.

At last on the thirteenth day of the month of Schabar,—­at sunrise,—­a great blow was heard at the gate of Khamon.

Seventy-five soldiers were pulling at ropes arranged at the base of a gigantic beam which was suspended horizontally by chains hanging from a framework, and which terminated in a ram’s head of pure brass.  It had been swathed in ox-hides; it was bound at intervals with iron bracelets; it was thrice as thick as a man’s body, one hundred and twenty cubits long, and under the crowd of naked arms pushing it forward and drawing it back, it moved to and fro with a regular oscillation.

The other rams before the other gates began to be in motion.  Men might be seen mounting from step to step in the hollow wheels of the tympanums.  The pulleys and caps grated, the rope curtains were lowered, and showers of stones and showers of arrows poured forth simultaneously; all the scattered slingers ran up.  Some approached the rampart hiding pots of resin under their shields; then they would hurl these with all their might.  This hail of bullets, darts, and flames passed above the first ranks in the form of a curve which fell behind the walls.  But long cranes, used for masting vessels, were reared on the summit of the ramparts; and from them there descended some of those enormous pincers which terminated in two semicircles toothed on the inside.  They bit the rams.  The soldiers clung to the beam and drew it back.  The Carthaginians hauled in order to pull it up; and the action was prolonged until the evening.

When the Mercenaries resumed their task on the following day, the tops of the walls were completely carpeted with bales of cotton, sails, and cushions; the battlements were stopped up with mats; and a line of forks and blades, fixed upon sticks, might be distinguished among the cranes on the rampart.  A furious resistance immediately began.