Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/216

 and they turned with a great shout against the attacking party, who thus received the impression that reinforcements had issued from the city and beat a hasty retreat. They were permitted to depart unmolested, and then, the gates being opened, all were enabled to reach their quarters in safety. Notwithstanding his titanic exertions Belisarius had escaped without a wound.

Both sides now matured their dispositions for pressing on and sustaining the siege. Belisarius posted divisions of the garrison at each gate, drafting into the service all the available citizens, and walled up the aqueducts at their place of entry, lest the enemy should be tempted to imitate his own successful stratagem at Naples. At the same time he exhorted the townspeople, who were inclined to jeer at his temerity in defying such a huge army, to be of good cheer, as he had excellent reasons for predicting that he should be victorious over the Goths. On his side Vitigis disposed his forces in seven fortified camps on the north of Rome, one being across the river near St. Peter's by the Vatican. In each case he dug a foss and cast a rampart, the top of which was defended by a line of stakes. Every channel by which provisions could enter the city was blocked, and all the aqueducts were cut through in order to produce a water famine. A variety of machines for storming the fortifications were also constructed: battering-rams; wooden towers as high as the battlements, rolling on four wheels and drawn by oxen; ladders in great number; and bundles of sticks and reeds to fill up the moat and thus give access over level ground to the walls. To resist such attacks engines for throwing heavy stones and darts were placed on the top of the walls by the besieged; huge beams, provided with teeth and worked by ropes, were hinged to the gates so as to beat