Twelve hundred of the fugitives
had survived, and the Suffet made them all captains; and carpenters,
armourers, blacksmiths, and goldsmiths were intrusted with the engines.
The Carthaginians had kept a few in spite of the conditions of the peace
with Rome. These were repaired. They understood such work.
The two northern and eastern sides, being protected by the sea and the
gulf, remained inaccessible. On the wall fronting the Barbarians they
collected tree-trunks, mill-stones, vases filled with sulphur, and
vats filled with oil, and built furnaces. Stones were heaped up on the
platforms of the towers, and the houses bordering immediately on the
rampart were crammed with sand in order to strengthen it and increase
its thickness.
The Barbarians grew angry at the sight of these preparations. They
wished to fight at once. The weights which they put into the catapults
were so extravagantly heavy that the beams broke, and the attack was
delayed.
At last on the thirteenth day of the month of Schabar,--at sunrise,--a
great blow was heard at the gate of Khamon.
Seventy-five soldiers were pulling at ropes arranged at the base of a
gigantic beam which was suspended horizontally by chains hanging from
a framework, and which terminated in a ram's head of pure brass.
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