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[166]
Vespasian then set the engines for throwing stones and darts round
about the city. The number of the engines was in all a hundred and sixty,
and bid them fall to work, and dislodge those that were upon the wall.
At the same time such engines as were intended for that purpose threw at
once lances upon them with a great noise, and stones of the weight of a
talent were thrown by the engines that were prepared for that purpose,
together with fire, and a vast multitude of arrows, which made the wall
so dangerous, that the Jews durst not only not come upon it, but durst
not come to those parts within the walls which were reached by the engines;
for the multitude of the Arabian archers, as well also as all those that
threw darts and slung stones, fell to work at the same time with the engines.
Yet did not the otters lie still, when they could not throw at the Romans
from a higher place; for they then made sallies out of the city, like private
robbers, by parties, and pulled away the hurdles that covered the workmen,
and killed them when they were thus naked; and when those workmen gave
way, these cast away the earth that composed the bank, and burnt the wooden
parts of it, together with the hurdles, till at length Vespasian perceived
that the intervals there were between the works were of disadvantage to
him; for those spaces of ground afforded the Jews a place for assaulting
the Romans. So he united the hurdles, and at the same time joined one part
of the army to the other, which prevented the private excursions of the
Jews.
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