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.

It had been swathed in ox-hides; it was bound at intervals with iron bracelets; it was thrice as thick as a man's body, one hundred and twenty cubits long, and under the crowd of naked arms pushing it forward and drawing it back, it moved to and fro with a regular oscillation.
The other rams before the other gates began to be in motion.

Men might be seen mounting from step to step in the hollow wheels of the tympanums.

The pulleys and caps grated, the rope curtains were lowered, and showers of stones and showers of arrows poured forth simultaneously; all the scattered slingers ran up.

Some approached the rampart hiding pots of resin under their shields; then they would hurl these with all their might.