This was done by lines of wooden towers, connected one with another by walls of the same material; movable towers were constructed to be pushed forward against the great tower which formed the chief defence of the wall, and on each side the line of attack was carried onward by portable screens covered with thick hide.  In the meantime the Saguntines were not idle.  Showers of missiles of all descriptions were hurled upon the working parties, great rocks from the machines on the walls crashed through the wooden erections, and frequent and desperate sorties were made, in which the Carthaginians were almost always worsted.  The nature of the ground, overlooked as it was by the lofty towers and walls, and swept by the missiles of the defenders, rendered it impossible for any considerable force to remain close at hand to render assistance to the workers, and the sudden attacks of the Saguntines several times drove them far down the hillside, and enabled the besieged, with axe and fire, to destroy much of the work which had been so labouriously carried out.

In one of these sorties Hannibal, who was continually at the front, overlooking the work, was seriously wounded by a javelin in the thigh.  Until he was cured the siege languished, and was converted into a blockade, for it was his presence and influence alone which encouraged the men to continue their work under such extreme difficulties, involving the death of a large proportion of those engaged.  Upon Hannibal’s recovery the work was pressed forward with new vigour, and the screens and towers were pushed on almost to the foot of the walls.  The battering rams were now brought up, and —­ shielded by massive screens, which protected those who worked them from the darts and stones thrown down by the enemy, and by lofty towers, from whose tops the Carthaginian archers engaged the Saguntines on the wall —­ began their work.

The construction of walls was in those days rude and primitive, and they had little of the solidity of such structures in succeeding ages.  The stones were very roughly shaped, no mortar was used, and the displacement of one stone consequently involved that of several others.  This being the case it was not long before the heavy battering rams of the Carthaginians produced an effect on the walls, and a large breach was speedily made.  Three towers and the walls which connected them fell with a mighty crash, and the besiegers, believing that the place was won, advanced to the assault.  But the Saguntines met them in the breach, and for hours a desperate battle raged there.

The Saguntines hurled down upon the assailants trunks of trees bristling with spearheads and spikes of iron, blazing darts and falariques —­ great blocks of wood with projecting spikes, and covered thickly with a mass of pitch and sulphur which set on fire all they touched.  Other species of falariques were in the form of spindles, the shaft wrapped round with flax dipped in pitch.  Hannibal fought at the head of his troops with desperate bravery, and had a narrow escape of being crushed by an enormous rock which fell at his feet; but in spite of his efforts and those of his troops they were unable to carry the breach, and at nightfall fell back to their camp, having suffered very heavy losses.