attempt was, however, easily repulsed.  The walls of the town were strong, its defenders brave and full of enterprise.  They burnt the siege-machines brought against them, and committed great havoc among the soldiers.  Under these circumstances disorders broke out among the besiegers; mutinous words were heard; and the emperor thought himself compelled to have recourse to severe measures of repression.  Having put to death two of his chief officers, and then found it necessary to deny that he had given orders for the execution of one of them, he broke up from before the place and removed his camp to a distance.

He had not, however, as yet relinquished the hope of bringing his enterprise to a successful issue.  In the security of his distant camp he constructed fresh engines in increased numbers, collected an abundant supply of provisions, and made every preparation for renewing the siege with effect at no remote period.  The treasures stored up in the city were reported to be great, especially those which the piety of successive generations had accumulated in the Temple of the Sun.  This rich booty appealed forcibly to the cupidity of the emperor, while his honor seemed to require that he should not suffer a comparatively petty town to defy his arms with impunity.  He, therefore, after a short absence retraced his steps, and appeared a second time before Hatrawith a stronger siege-train and a better appointed army than before.  But the Hatreni met his attack with a resolution equal to his own.  They were excellent archers; they possessed a powerful force of cavalry; they knew their walls to be strong; and they were masters of a peculiar kind of fire, which was calculated to terrify and alarm, if not greatly to injure, an enemy unacquainted with its qualities.  Severus once more lost almost all his machines; the Hatrene cavalry severely handled his foragers; his men for a long time made but little impression upon the walls, while they suffered grievously from the enemy’s slingers and archers, from his warlike engines, and especially, we are told, from the fiery darts which were rained upon them incessantly.  However, after enduring these various calamities for a length of time, the perseverance of the Romans was rewarded by the formation of a practicable breach in the outer wall; and the soldiers demanded to be led to the assault, confident in their power to force an entrance and carry the place.  But the emperor resisted their inclination.  He did not wish that the city should be stormed, since in that case it must have been given up to indiscriminate pillage, and the treasures which he coveted would have become the prey of the soldiery.  The Hatreni, he thought, would make their submission, if he only gave them a little time, now that they must see further resistance to be hopeless.  He waited therefore a day, expecting an offer of surrender.  But the Hatreni made no sign, and in the night restored their wall where it had been broken down.