11.74
When this attempt had failed Mithridates brought up the machine erected on the ships and suddenly projected the bridge upon the wall and four of his men ran across. The Cyziceans were at first dumbfounded by the novelty of the device and gave way somewhat, but as the rest of the enemy were slow in following, they plucked up courage and thrust the four over the wall. Then they poured burning pitch on the ships and compelled them to back out stern foremost with the machine. In this way the Cyziceans beat off the invaders by sea. Three times on the same day all the machines on the landward side were massed against the toiling citizens, who flew this way and that way to meet the constantly renewed assault. They broke the rams with stones, or turned them aside with nooses, or deadened their blows with baskets of wool. They extinguished the enemy’s fire-bearing missiles with water and vinegar, and broke the force of others by means of garments suspended or linen cloth stretched before them. In short, they left nothing untried that was within the compass of human zeal. Although they toiled most perseveringly, yet a portion of the wall, that had been weakened by fire, gave way toward evening; but on account of the heat nobody was in a hurry to dash in. The Cyziceans built another wall around it that night, and about this time a tremendous wind came and smashed the rest of the king’s machines.
