The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-01-12

i1he German army numbered nearly two hundred and fifty thousand men and completely invested the city, a few French officers and statesmen keeping up communication with the outside
 world by means of balloons. The siege Twas marked by little desperate fighting, few unsuccessful sorties covtring the French offensive fighting. The losses of the defenders reached twenty-five thou sand, while the besiegers lost only if. teen thousand men.
 The most famous siege of the eigh- teenth century is that of La Rochelle, where the great Cardinal Richelieu for lfourteen months besieged the Hugue- sot defender. Finally, by the construc- ton of huge mole, vast stone wall that closed the entrancetto the harbor, he starved the city into submission. Fully fifteen thousand of the defenders perished from hunger, and when the 1 city finally capitulated it is recorded that there were only one hundred and th1rty-six of its citizens able to bear arms. Belgrade, in this, as in several other centuries, sustained a notable siege. Situated on the former boundary between the Ottoman empire and Chris tendon, the dates of it's investment are significant. Belgrade was besieged in 1439. 1456, 1521, 1888, TIT, 1739 and 17Ss..
 Of mediaeval sieges that of Constan. tinople by the Turks in 145S is. the most l famous, and the fall of the city ended the Roman empire. which had survived in an eastern land to this time. This siege lasted fifty three days and was notable as the first great siege where artillery engines of war were also used. The last of the Constantines defended the city, and it's defence was marked outnumbering the defenders ffftysto one, transported portion of their fleet overland, and finally by sheer weight of numbers prevailed, the city falling by l storm, the attack being headed by the l fierce janissaries. Constantine was among ..s the last to fall, and after his death there followed three days of hid eous carnage, forty thousand persons perishing in the sack Of the city and fifty thousand were reduced to slavery I Of ancient sieges those of Rome, Car thage. Tyre, Syracuse and Jerusalem are the most noteworthy. The siege capture and sack Of Rome by Alaric the Goth, in 40S3A. D., was one of the blood jest of sfeges. Rome at that time con tained a million inhabitants, and it's wealth was incalculable. On April 24 40, A. D., 1,163 years after the found ing of the city, it was taken by storm, I a,1d tho esIo q 1xrI1iah fnII 1S enormous. Genseric the VandaL once more took the city, this time by attack from the water side, in 455 A. D. In the years, that followed the imperial city was the football of the barbarians, pillaged so frequently that it's popula- tion was reduced to insignifieance and it's buildings to ruins. It was not until 1870 that the last foreign garrison Of Rome was withdrawn, by Napoleon III of France, and Italian rule was re- Estored. .r ~.F 2<, | The final siege and capture of Car l thage in 146 B. C., when, after the walls were captured, the defenders main l tained, their fight in the streets for six days and the flames persisted for seven teen days, ended the glory of the sole ri val to Rome. The conquerors razed the bcity and sowed it's site with salt, al though subsequently a Roman colony was founded there. or all the cities of antiquity none have perished so utterly and left so few traces as this Punic city, once mistress of the ocean and de tended by wall eighteen miles in ex- tent and hforty-six feet thick. Among l the most fatal of all sieges to the in- vesting forces was that of Syracuse in Sicily, where more than forty thousand Athenians were captured or killed and several fleets destroyed. The Athenian general was slain, and the supremacy of Athens terminated by this defeat. I But of all the sieges. of antiquity, that of Jerusalem by Titus is the most men1- orable. The Roman besieger was held at bay by the wonderful walls of the Holy City from April to September ', | A, D, 70. For the first time in recorded history mines were employed, and the catapults and war engines of Titus were destroyed by a mine excavated be- meath them and filled with pitch. Pris- oners were crucified in the space be- l UWcSLl IHC DColCSCu ebllu bSoaSSSly ebilh mals were eaten, and even the rats were used as food by the defenders, and : it is charged that human flesh was de- voured. The defence and sack of the city, according to Josephus, cost the de | lenders the lives of eleven hundred thousand of their number while ninety seven thousand were captured. After the triple lines of walls had been cap tured the defenders retired to the tenn I pie, and held out for days. Finally the temple itself was fired by a Roman sol- dier, contrary to the orders of Titus, and utterly destroyed, while beneath l it's ruins the last vestige of resistance | perished. Thousands of Jews graced | the triumph of the conqueror at Rome, and were subsequently, sold into slave ry and the final dispersal of the Jewish | race began. The Arch of Titus. com l memorating this triumph. still stands | near the Coliseum, in Rome, the best | preserved of the ancient monuments, as | in the narrative of Josephus the most minute and detailed account of an an 8853