Then he drew himself up. He surveyed the horizon with a haughty air
which seemed to say: "All that is now mine!" The applause of the
Barbarians burst forth, while the Carthaginians, comprehending their
disaster at last, shrieked with despair. Then he began to run about
the platform from one end to the other,--and like a chariot-driver
triumphant at the Olympic Games, Spendius, distraught with pride, raised
his arms aloft.
CHAPTER XIII
MOLOCH
The Barbarians had no need of a circumvallation on the side of Africa,
for it was theirs. But to facilitate the approach to the walls, the
entrenchments bordering the ditch were thrown down. Matho next divided
the army into great semicircles so as to encompass Carthage the better.
The hoplites of the Mercenaries were placed in the first rank, and
behind them the slingers and horsemen; quite at the back were the
baggage, chariots, and horses; and the engines bristled in front of this
throng at a distance of three hundred paces from the towers.
Amid the infinite variety of their nomenclature (which changed several
times in the course of the centuries) these machines might be reduced to
two systems: some acted like slings, and the rest like bows.
The first, which were the catapults, was composed of a square frame with
two vertical uprights and a horizontal bar.
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