Nec temeritas post haec cessaverat nec consilium; namque dum instrueretur aries vetustus et dissolutus, ut facile veheretur, omni arte omnique virium nisu, et oppugnatorum vineae firmitudine summa defensabatur, tormenta nihilo minus et lapidum crebritas atque fundarum ex utraque parte plurimos consumebant, et aggerum moles incrementis celeribus consurgebant, acriorque in dies aduiescebat obsidio, multis nostrorum idcirco cadentibus, quod decernentes sub imperatoris conspectu, spe praemiorum, ut possint facile qui essent agnosci, nudantes galeis capita, sagittariorum hostilium peritia fundebantur.
And after this they lacked neither rash courage nor good judgement. For although the ram, which was old and had been taken apart for ready transportation, was being set up with all skill and with every exertion of power, and was protected by the besiegers with a mantlet of great strength, yet the artillery and the showers of stones and sling-shots continued none the less to destroy great numbers on both sides. The massive mounds too were rising with rapid additions, the siege grew hotter every day, and many of our men fell for the reason that, fighting as they were under the emperors eye, through the hope of rewards and wishing to be easily recognised they put off their helmets from their heads and so fell victims to the skill of the enemys archers.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book20.json