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[4]

At the same time, the Phoenicians poured down fire and flung javelins and stones, and by the volume of their missiles weakened the resolution of the attackers. They let down long poles or spars equipped with concave cutting edges and cut the ropes supporting the rams, thus rendering these instruments useless. With their fire-throwers they discharged huge red-hot masses of metal into the press of the enemy, and where so many men were packed together they did not miss their mark. With "crows" and "iron hands"1 they dragged over the edge many who were stationed behind the breastworks on the towers.

1 Two forms of grappling irons.

Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.

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