The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-01-13


In nothins. perhaps. is the sradua.
evolution of the art oil MAR more inoi-
Gated than in operations against forti-
fed places. The relative preponderance
OF defense owe attack. or of attack
over defense. according as the efficiency
of arMs or OF Qualifications has been in
creased from age To age, presents one
OF the most Interesting studies in his
DRY The further we recede from the
present. the longer we find the sieges
10 W been. tintii g~unpowder and eN-
plostse bombs were invented, The de-
feuSe was for the most part stronger
than the attack. with some few keep
tiu's IN favor of the more advanced ma
tiona, like the Romans, when opposed
TO barbarians.
Herodosus tells that the siege of
Azetns, n of the five royal cities of
the Phoenicians. by Psammetichus,
king of Egypt. lasted tw%enty-nine
years. The siege of Troy, about twelve
centuries before Christ, by the allied
Greeks. who had vowed to recover
Helen. the wife OF Menelaus, and to
avenge her abduction, endured ten
years While the Homeric account
must be regarded as very largely fabul-
GUS, 1t yet may be accepted as illus
tratfng very primitive methods of war
are. The walls of Troy were not de-
signed to repeI attack by any really
1aA5 ~ VI - GIN
to-han combats are the chief episodes
of the great Grecian epic. The place
was taken at last. according TO Homer,
by a chiidiike piece of strategy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, SIS b. c.. besieged
Tyre thirteen years before it fell.
Cyrus the Great. as b. c., captured
Babylon by diverting the water of the
Euphrates and marching his army
through its dry bed, under the massive
walls and into the city, where Relshaz-
Ear was feasting and c%arousing. Ca
millus, after Il siege of ten wears, 396
b. c.. o Veil. a rival to Rome. by
amir the Aiban lake and entering
the city through The tunnel which sup
piled it with water. The city and island
of Rhodes. 1904 b. c.. held out Il whole
year against the remarkable engineer
ing genius of Demetrils. SON OF
A~ntisonus. the wouldbe successor of
Alexander. The operations of De-
metrius We're the wonder of his age.
His masterpiece WAS the "~helopolis,"
or "city-taker," a wooden tower $50
feet high, sheathed in iron, travelling
on wheels and moved by the united
strength of 1900 men. His battering
am we're 100 feet long. and each was
driven by $500 men. The Rhodians
were peduced to such extremity thai
they used in working their catapults,
ropes made OF the hair of their women.
But by many devices they frustrated
every assault, and in the end Demetrius
was obliged to confirm the independ-
ence OF their city.
Famous Defense of Syracuse.
The Romans under Marcellus, PA B..
c., besieged the great and powerful
city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The fame of
Its defense Is chiefly due to the wonder
full energy and mathematical genius of
,Archfaaedes. the geometrician. For
cighs months he constantly invented
nd ~nnfn rn-v viz ar = 49, -.~l
repel the attacks of the besiegers. His
torians say that without his aid it
would have been impossible to resist
h Romans. The machines of Archi-
modes on the landward side of the
town discharged from the top of the
wallis stones of enormous weight, beat
ingd down and dashfng to pieces all be-
fore them. On the seaward side other
machines flung great beams, heavily
weighted, upon the ships of the Ro-
mans. sinking many of them instantly.
With a huge iron grapple other ships
were seized by one end and hoisted into
the air and then allowed to drop. Some
times by a particular continuance they
were whirled swiftly about While still
suspended, and in falling cast all of
the men into the sea. Even Archi-
medes. however, could not produce ma
chimes of defense that would
balance the great superiority of the
~ anu lIldltIltA re-
sources. BY their persistence and
logged valor they gained at the end of
eight months a foothold within the out
err rampant, and therefore had less to
fear from the ingenuity of the geo
metrician. 1t took three years. how
ever, Tor them to gain possession of the
city, in h sack of which Archimedes
was slain.
The superiority of the defense over
the ATTACK was we'll illustrated by
Carthage In H7 B.. c.. The inhabitants
had been tricked by the Romans into
n surrender of their arms and mill
tary munitions; but they shu their
gates, and. without weapons, engineer
or ships until they had made them
anew. they Kept the besiegers out for
two years.
Conquest of Jerusalem.
seventy years after the birth of
Christ the most atrocious of all the
conQuests OF Jerusalem took place, in
consequence OF the Great Revolt" tt
tus, aiterward Roman emperor. COM
manded the besieging army. The ma
tertal means employed by him We're
those familiar to readers of ancient his
tory. but added to these We're cruelties,
feet. which have rarely, If ever, been
equaled. h Jewish prisoners were
crucified before the walls in full view
of their c%ountrymen. These %stubbornly
submitted to famine rather than sur
render to a yet more horrible death.
Whole families persisted of hunger. and
heaps OF purifying dead lay in the
houses. The siege began about the
time of the Passover. and it was not
until the 18th of Sentember that the Ro-
mans forced their way through the in
ner walls. They slew all whom they
found. meanwhile setting fire to the
buildings in every direction. The entire
city was RACED with the exception of
three towers, which We're left as
trophies of victory. The Romans here
again owed yheir success to their great
err numbers and and to a bet
ter mastery OF the art of war. Jerusa-
lem was perfectly isolated, and the de-
lenders must have died of famine had
1t no been taken by storm.
The Dark Ages witnessed a RELAPSE
in the art of var and yet present a
few memorable sieges, notably that
laid against Paris by the Mortimer, or
Danes, under Rollo and Siegfried, A.
ID. 1885. After ravaging for more
than forty years a good part of France,
of which Charles the Fat then was
king. the two forces formed a junction
in the Seine before Paris with 700
barks n more than 10000 Warriors.
The siege began on the 18th of Novem-
1sor. and WAS cOpj,rteG with e,,,l