Quae autem testudines ad fodiendum comparantur (orynges graece dicuntur), cetera omnia habent, uti supra scriptum est, frontes vero earum fiunt quemadmodum anguli trigoniorum, uti a muro tela cum in eas mittantur, non planis frontibus excipiant plagas sed ab lateribus labentes, sine periculoque fodientes, qui intus sunt, intuentur.
Now the tortoises which are designed for digging (in Greek they are called orynges) follow the description in every respect but that their fronts are made like the angles of triangles, so that when arrows are shot against them from the walls the blows which they receive do not fall upon a plane surface, but slip along the sides, and the men within are protected and dig without danger.
final_alignments\Vitruvius_Architecture_Book_10.json