HKB
precipice which ran sheer down into the Euphrates; the walls were built of baked bricks and bitumen, a combination which is well known to be the strongest of all materials.
And now the savage soldiery, having traversed the city, which they found empty, were fighting fiercely with the defenders who poured all kinds of missiles on them from the citadel. Being hard pressed by the catapults and balistæ of our men, they also raised on the height huge bows of great power, the extremities of which, rising high on each side, could only be bent slowly; but the string, when loosed by violent exertion of the fingers, sent forth iron-tipped arrows with such force as to inflict fatal wounds on any one whom they struck.
Nevertheless, the fight was maintained on both sides with showers of stones thrown by the hand, and as neither gained any ground a fierce contest was protracted from daybreak to nightfall with great obstinacy; and at last they parted without any advantage to either side. The next day the fight was renewed with great violence, and numbers were slain on each side, and still the result was even; when the emperor, being eager amid this reciprocal slaughter to try every chance, being guarded by a solid column, and defended from the arrows of the enemy by their closely packed shields, rushed forward with a rapid charge up to the enemy's gates, which were faced with stout iron.
And although he was still in some danger, being hard pressed with stones and bullets and other weapons, still he cheered on his men with frequent war-cries while they were preparing to force in the gates in order to effect an entrance, and did not retreat till he found himself on the point of being entirely overwhelmed by the mass of missiles which were poured down on him.
However, he came off safe with only a few of his men slightly wounded; not without feeling some modest shame at being repulsed. For he had read that Scipio Æmilianus, with the historian Polybius, a citizen of Megalopolis in Arcadia, and thirty thousand soldiers, had, by a similar attack, forced the gate of Carthage.
But the account given by the old writers may serve to defend this modern attempt; for Æmilianus approached a gate protected by a stone-covered testudo, under which he safely forced his way into the city while the garrison was occupied in demolishing this stone roof. But Julian attacked a place completely exposed, while the whole face of heaven was darkened by the fragments of rock and weapons which were showered upon him, and was even then with great difficulty repulsed and forced to retire.
After this hasty and tumultuous assault, as the vast preparations of sheds and mounds which were carried on were attended with much difficulty, through the hindrances offered by the garrison, Julian ordered an engine called helepolis to be constructed with all speed; which, as we have already mentioned, King Demetrius used, and earned the title of Poliorcetes by the number of cities which he took.
The garrison, anxiously viewing this engine, which was to exceed the height of their lofty towers, and considering at the same time the determination of the besiegers, suddenly betook themselves to supplications, and spreading over the towers and walls, imploring the pardon and protection of the Romans with outstretched hands.
And when they saw that the works of the Romans were suspended, and that those who were constructing them were doing nothing, which seemed a sure token of peace, they requested an opportunity of conferring with Hormisdas.