armavit clausos ac portis arcuit hostem librari multa consueta falarica dextra, horrendum visu robur celsisque nivosae Pyrenes trabs lecta iugis, cui plurima cuspis vix muris toleranda lues; sed cetera pingui uncta pice atque atro circumlita sulphure fumant.
But the besieged were protected and the enemy kept away from the gates by the falarica,b which many arms at once were wont to poise. This was a missile of wood, terrible to behold, a beam chosen from the high mountains of the snow-covered Pyrenees, a weapon whose long iron point even walls could scarce withstand. Then the shaft, smeared with oily pitch and rubbed all round with black sulphur, sent forth smoke.
final_alignments\Silius_Italicus_Punica_Book1.json