these engines threw stones and darts made them hurt several at a
time, and the violent noise of the stones that were cast by the
engines was so great, that they carried away the pinnacles of the
wall, and broke off the corners of the towers; for no body of men
could be so strong as not to be overthrown to the last rank by
the largeness of the stones. And any one may learn the force of
the engines by what happened this very night; for as one of those
that stood round about Josephus was near the wall, his head was
carried away by such a stone, and his skull was flung as far as
three furlongs. In the day time also, a woman with child had her
belly so violently struck, as she was just come out of her house,
that the infant was carried to the distance of half a furlong, so
great was the force of that engine. The noise of the instruments
themselves was very terrible, the sound of the darts and stones
that were thrown by them was so also; of the same sort was that
noise the dead bodies made, when they were dashed against the
wall; and indeed dreadful was the clamor which these things
raised in the women within the city, which was echoed back at the
same time by the cries of such as were slain; while the whole
space of ground whereon they fought ran with blood, and the wall
might have been ascended over by the bodies of the dead
carcasses; the mountains also contributed to increase the noise
by their echoes; nor was there on that night any thing of terror
wanting that could either affect the hearing or the sight: yet
did a great part of those that fought so hard for Jotapata fall
manfully, as were a great part of them wounded. However, the
morning watch was come ere the wall yielded to the machines
employed against it, though it had been battered without
intermission. However, those within covered their bodies with
their armor, and raised works over against that part which was