thrown down, before those machines were laid by which the Romans
were to ascend into the city.

24. In the morning Vespasian got his army together, in order to
take the city [by storm], after a little recreation upon the hard
pains they had been at the night before; and as he was desirous
to draw off those that opposed him from the places where the wall
had been thrown down, he made the most courageous of the horsemen
get off their horses, and placed them in three ranks over against
those ruins of the wall, but covered with their armor on every
side, and with poles in their hands, that so these might begin
their ascent as soon as the instruments for such ascent were
laid; behind them he placed the flower of the footmen; but for
the rest of the horse, he ordered them to extend themselves over
against the wall, upon the whole hilly country, in order to
prevent any from escaping out of the city when it should be
taken; and behind these he placed the archers round about, and
commanded them to have their darts ready to shoot. The same
command he gave to the slingers, and to those that managed the
engines, and bid them to take up other ladders, and have them
ready to lay upon those parts of the wall which were yet
untouched, that the besieged might be engaged in trying to hinder
their ascent by them, and leave the guard of the parts that were
thrown down, while the rest of them should be overborne by the
darts cast at them, and might afford his men an entrance into the
city.

25. But Josephus, understanding the meaning of Vespasian's
contrivance, set the old men, together with those that were tired
out, at the sound parts of the wall, as expecting no harm from