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to give a fixed sum to his allies, not annually, however, but whenever need drove him to it. At that time, therefore, the emperor Justinian, summoning those of the Sabirs who were suitable for an alliance, sent someone to bring the money to them. But he (for since the enemy was in between, he was by no means able to go safely into the Caucasian mountains, especially since he was carrying money) came to Bessas and the Roman army, which was established for the siege of Petra, and sending to the Sabirs, he ordered some of them who were to receive the money to come to him as quickly as possible; and the barbarians, having selected three of their leaders, immediately sent them with a few men to Lazica; who indeed, having arrived there, joined the Roman army in this assault on the wall. These men, when they saw the Romans in despair and at a loss how to handle the present situation, devised a certain engine, such as had come into the mind of neither any of the Romans nor of the Persians, since men have existed, although a great crowd of artisans has always existed and now exists in each state. And both peoples have often throughout all time found themselves in need of this engine, when assaulting fortifications situated in rough and difficult places; but this idea has occurred to none of them, which has now occurred to these barbarians; thus, as time always goes on, the nature of men is wont to innovate upon the conceptions of things. For these Sabirs improvised a ram, not in the customary way, but having innovated in a different manner. For they did not insert beams into this engine, neither upright nor transverse, but by binding some thick rods to one another, and fitting them together everywhere in place of beams, and by covering the whole engine with hides, they preserved the shape of the ram, suspending only one beam, as is customary, down the middle of the engine with some loose chains, the end of which, having been made sharp and covered with iron like the point of an arrow, was meant to be driven frequently against the circuit-wall. And they made the engine so light, that it was no longer necessary for it to be pulled or pushed by the men inside, but forty men, who were to both draw back the beam and drive it against the circuit-wall, being inside the engine and covered by the hides, carried the ram on their shoulders with no effort. These barbarians made three such engines, having taken the beams with their iron from the rams which the Romans had in readiness but were not able to drag to the wall; and having gotten under each of them, no fewer than forty Roman soldiers, chosen for their excellence, placed them as near as possible to the wall. And on either side of each engine others stood, armored and with their heads completely covered by helmets, and holding poles, the ends of which were fitted with iron hooks, prepared by them for this purpose, that whenever the strike of the ram against the circuit-wall should dislodge the layers of stones, with these poles they might be able to pull away and cast down the dislodged stones. The Romans, then, set to work and the wall was already being shaken by the frequent blows, and those on either side of the engines with the hooked poles were casting down the stones that were being loosened from their place in the structure, and the city was expected to be captured very soon. But the Persians devised the following. A wooden tower, which had been prepared by them long ago, they placed above the circuit-wall, full of their most warlike men, who had covered their heads and the rest of their body with iron helmets and breastplates. And having filled vessels with sulphur and asphalt and a drug, which the Medes call naphtha, but the Greeks Medea's oil, and having set these on fire, upon the engines of the rams

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τακτὸν τοῖς αὑτοῦ ἐνσπόνδοις προΐεσθαι, οὐκ ἐπέτειον μέντοι, ἀλλ' ἡνίκα ἂν ἐς τοῦτο 8.11.25 αὐτὸν ἡ χρεία ἐνάγοι. τότε οὖν Ἰουστινιανὸς βασιλεὺς τῶν Σαβείρων τούς οἱ ἐπιτηδείους ἐς τὴν ὁμαιχμίαν παρακαλῶν ἔστειλέ τινα τὸν τὰ χρήματα παρ' 8.11.26 αὐτοὺς κομιοῦντα. ὁ δὲ (πολεμίων γὰρ μεταξὺ ὄντων ἐς ὄρη τὰ Καυκάσια ἰέναι ξὺν τῷ ἀσφαλεῖ ἄλλως τε καὶ χρήματα ἐπαγόμενος οὐδαμῆ εἶχεν) ἀφικνεῖται μὲν παρά τε τὸν Βέσσαν καὶ τὸ Ῥωμαίων στρατόπεδον, ὅπερ ἐς τὴν Πέτρας πολιορκίαν καθίστατο, παρὰ δὲ τοὺς Σαβείρους πέμψας ἐκέλευσεν αὐτῶν τινας ὅτι τάχιστα τοὺς τὰ χρήματα ληψομένους παρ' αὐτὸν ἥκειν, οἵ τε βάρβαροι τρεῖς ἀπολεξάμενοι τῶν ἐν σφίσιν ἀρχόντων, ξὺν ὀλίγοις τισὶν ἐς Λαζικὴν εὐθὺς ἔπεμψαν· οἳ δὴ ἐνταῦθα γενόμενοι ξὺν τῷ Ῥωμαίων στρατῷ ἐς 8.11.27 τήνδε τὴν τειχομαχίαν κατέστησαν. οὗτοι ἐπειδὴ Ῥωμαίους εἶδον ἀπογνόντας τε καὶ ἀπορουμένους τὸ παρὸν θέσθαι, μηχανήν τινα ἐπετεχνήσαντο, οἵα οὔτε Ῥωμαίων οὔτε Περσῶν τινι, ἐξ οὗ γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι, ἐς ἔννοιαν ἦλθε, καίτοι τεχνιτῶν μὲν πολὺς ὅμιλος ἐν 8.11.28 ἑκατέρᾳ πολιτείᾳ γέγονέ τε ἀεὶ καὶ τανῦν ἐστιν. ἐς χρείαν δὲ πολλάκις ἐς τὸν πάντα αἰῶνα κατέστησαν τῆς μηχανῆς ἑκάτεροι ταύτης, ἐς ἐρύματά τε τειχομαχοῦντες ἐν χωρίοις σκληροῖς καὶ δυσβάτοις τισὶ κείμενα· ἀλλ' αὐτῶν οὐδενὶ τὸ ἐνθύμημα τοῦτο γεγένηται, ὅπερ τούτοις δὴ τοῖς βαρβάροις τανῦν γέγονεν· οὕτως ἀεὶ προϊόντι τῷ χρόνῳ συννεωτερίζειν τῶν πραγμάτων τὰς ἐπινοίας φιλεῖ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ φύσις. 8.11.29 κριὸν γὰρ αὐτοσχεδιάζουσιν οἱ Σάβειροι οὗτοι, οὐχ ᾗπερ εἰώθει, ἀλλὰ καινουργήσαντες ἑτέρῳ τῳ τρόπῳ. 8.11.30 οὐ γὰρ δοκοὺς ἐς τὴν μηχανὴν ταύτην, οὐκ ὀρθὰς, οὐκ ἐγκαρσίας ἐμβέβληνται, ἀλλὰ ῥάβδους παχείας τινὰς ἐς ἀλλήλας ξυνδέοντες, καὶ αὐτὰς ἀντὶ τῶν δοκῶν πανταχόθι ἐναρμοσάμενοι, βύρσαις τε τὴν μηχανὴν καλύψαντες ὅλην τὸ τοῦ κριοῦ διεσώσαντο σχῆμα, μίαν δοκὸν μόνην, ᾗπερ εἴθισται, κατὰ μέσην τὴν μηχανὴν ἁλύσεσιν ἀναρτήσαντες χαλαραῖς τισιν, ἧσπερ τὸ ἄκρον ὀξὺ γεγενημένον καὶ σιδήρῳ περικαλυφθὲν ὥσπερ βέλους ἀκὶς ἔμελλε συχνὰ κατὰ τοῦ περιβόλου 8.11.31 ἐμβάλλεσθαι. οὕτω δὲ κούφην τὴν μηχανὴν ἀπειργάσαντο, ὥστε οὐκέτι αὐτὴν πρὸς ἀνδρῶν τῶν ἔνδον ὄντων ἐφέλκεσθαι ἢ διωθεῖσθαι ἀναγκαῖον ἐγίνετο, ἀλλ' ἄνδρες τεσσαράκοντα, οἳ καὶ τὴν δοκὸν ἀνασύρειν τε καὶ κατὰ τοῦ περιβόλου ἐμβάλλεσθαι ἔμελλον, ἔνδον τῆς μηχανῆς ὄντες καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν βυρσῶν καλυπτόμενοι 8.11.32 ἔφερον τὸν κριὸν ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων οὐδενὶ πόνῳ. τρεῖς μὲν οὗτοι οἱ βάρβαροι μηχανὰς τοιαύτας εἰργάσαντο, τὰς δοκοὺς ξὺν τῷ σιδήρῳ ἐκ τῶν κριῶν ἀφελόμενοι, οὓς δὴ Ῥωμαῖοι ἐν παρασκευῇ ἔχοντες οὐχ οἷοί τε ἦσαν ἐς τὸ τεῖχος ἐφέλκειν· ὑποδύντες δὲ αὐτῶν ἑκάστην οὐχ ἥσσους ἢ κατὰ τεσσαράκοντα στρατιῶται Ῥωμαῖοι ἀριστίνδην ἀπολεχθέντες ὡς ἀγχοτάτω τοῦ τείχους 8.11.33 ἔθεντο. ἑκατέρωθεν δὲ μηχανῆς ἑκάστης ἕτεροι ἵσταντο, τεθωρακισμένοι τε καὶ κράνεσι τὰς κεφαλὰς ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς κεκαλυμμένοι καὶ κοντοὺς ἔχοντες, ὧνπερ τὰ ἄκρα σιδηρίοις ἀγκιστροειδέσιν ἐρήρειστο, τούτου δὴ παρεσκευασμένων αὐτοῖς ἕνεκα, ὅπως, ἐπειδὰν ἡ τοῦ κριοῦ ἐς τὸν περίβολον ἐμβολὴ ξυγχέῃ τὰς τῶν λίθων ἐπιβολὰς, τούτοις δὴ τοῖς κοντοῖς περιαιρεῖν τε τοὺς ξυγχεομένους τῶν λίθων καὶ ἀπορρίπτειν δυνατοὶ εἶεν. 8.11.34 Ῥωμαῖοι μὲν οὖν ἔργου εἴχοντο καὶ τὸ τεῖχος ἤδη συχναῖς ταῖς ἐμβολαῖς κατεσείετο, οἱ δὲ τῶν μηχανῶν ἐφ' ἑκάτερα ὄντες τοῖς ἀγκιστροειδέσι κοντοῖς τῶν λίθων τοὺς ξυνταρασσομένους ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὴν οἰκοδομίαν ξυνθήκης ἐρρίπτουν, ἁλώσεσθαί τε ἡ πόλις 8.11.35 αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα ἐπίδοξος ἦν. οἱ δὲ Πέρσαι ἐπενόουν τάδε. ξύλινον πύργον, ὅσπερ αὐτοῖς ἐκ παλαιοῦ παρεσκεύαστο, καθύπερθεν τοῦ περιβόλου ἐτίθεντο, ἀνδρῶν ἔμπλεων τῶν ἐν σφίσι μαχιμωτάτων, ἥλοις τε σιδηροῖς καὶ θώραξι τάς τε κεφαλὰς καὶ τὸ ἄλλο σῶμα περι8.11.36 βαλόντων. ἀγγεῖα δὲ θείου τε καὶ ἀσφάλτου ἐμπλησάμενοι καὶ φαρμάκου, ὅπερ Μῆδοι μὲν νάφθαν καλοῦσιν, Ἕλληνες δὲ Μηδείας ἔλαιον, πυρί τε ταῦτα ὑφάψαντες ἐπὶ τὰς μηχανὰς τῶν κριῶν