Poliorcetica

Aeneas Tacticus

Translated by Thothica

1 hr 50 min

Preface

For those men who set out from their own country and meet with contests and dangers beyond its borders, if some reverse befalls them by land or by sea, there remains to the survivors their own land and city and homeland, so that they would not all be utterly destroyed.
But for those who are about to face danger for the greatest of things—their temples, their homeland, their parents, their children, and all the rest—the contest is not equal nor alike; rather, for those who are saved and have defended themselves well, it means that they will be formidable to their enemies and hard to attack for the rest of time, while for those who have borne themselves badly in the dangers, no hope of safety will remain.
Those, therefore, who are about to contend for things so many and so great must be deficient in no preparation and no zeal, but must take forethought for many works of every kind, so that through no fault of their own may they be seen to have failed.
But if after all some misfortune does occur, at least the survivors might one day restore their fortunes to their former state, just as some of the Greeks, having come to the very brink of ruin, yet recovered themselves.

Chapter 1

We must, then, consider the marshalling of the men in relation to the size of the city, the layout of the town, the posting of the guards and their rounds, and all the other duties for which men are needed throughout the city, and make our divisions accordingly.
Those who go out on campaign must be organized with a view to the places along their route—how they ought to march past dangerous, fortified, narrow, level, commanding, and ambush-prone ground, and the crossings of rivers, and the deployments arising from such places.
But those who keep the walls and guard the city need no such organization, only one suited to the places within the city and to the present danger.
First, then, one must assign the most prudent men, those most experienced in war, who shall be about the magistrates.
Then, for the rest, one must pick out the men most capable of hard work, and, dividing them, form them into companies, so that they may be available, ready stationed and able to serve, for the sorties and the rounds throughout the city and the relief of hard-pressed posts, or for any other like service.
They must be loyal and content with the established order; for such a body, kept together, is a great safeguard against the plots of others, serving as a citadel, and would be a terror to those in the city who wish to act against it.
Let their leader and overseer be a man prudent in all other respects and vigorous, and one to whom the greatest dangers would come if a revolution should occur.
Of the remainder, one should select the most robust in age and youth and post them to the guard-duties and the walls, and distribute the surplus multitude in proportion to the length of the nights and the number of the watches.
As for the crowds, one should assign some to the market-place, some to the theatre, and the rest to the other open spaces in the city, so that, as far as possible, no part of the city be left empty.

Chapter 2

It is best to blind the useless open spaces in the city—so that men need not be stationed in them—by trenching them and making them as impassable as possible for those who wish to start a revolt and to seize them beforehand.
The Lacedaemonians, indeed, when the Thebans invaded, pulling down material from the nearest houses and from the field-walls and party-walls, and filling baskets with earth and stones in different places, one party here and another there—and they say they used also the bronze tripods from the temples, of which there were many and large ones—and, blocking up with these too beforehand the entrances and passages and open spaces of the town, prevented those who attempted to break in from reaching the town itself.
The Plataeans, when they perceived by night that the Thebans were in the city, observing that these were not many nor engaged in the work that was fitting, but supposing, for all that, that they held the city, judged that by attacking them they would easily prevail. They therefore at once devised the following stratagem.
Some of the magistrates made agreements with the Thebans in the market-place, while others secretly passed word to the rest of the citizens not to come out of their houses scattered, but, one and two at a time, to dig through the party-walls and gather together secretly at one another's houses.
When a force large enough to fight had been made ready, they blocked the passages and lanes with wagons without their draught-animals, and at a signal, having assembled, they rushed upon the Thebans.
At the same time the women and the household slaves were on the roofs, so that, when the Thebans wished to act and to defend themselves in the dark, the harm done by the wagons was no less than that done by the men set upon them. For the one party fled, not knowing the way to safety because of the barricades of wagons, while the others, pursuing with knowledge of the ground, quickly destroyed many.
One must, however, set down also the considerations opposite to these: that, if there is but a single open space, there is danger to those in the city, should the plotters seize it beforehand; for, the place being common and single, the work would belong to those who acted first. But if there are two or three such places, the following advantages would result.
If they seize one or two places, the remaining one would be left to their opponents; and if they seize all, then, being divided and dispersed, they would be in a weaker position against their opponents who are concentrated, unless they should outnumber those in the city in each detachment. And in the same way, in all other matters too, one must take into account the considerations opposite to those set down above, that one may not heedlessly adopt some other course.

Chapter 3

When a fresh fear comes upon a city that is unorganized, one might most quickly set the citizens in order for the guarding of the city if one were to assign by lot to each tribe some part of the wall, to which the tribes will come at once and stand guard. Let them guard a stretch of wall proportioned to the numbers of each tribe.
Then, in this way, one should pick out from each tribe those able to do bodily work for the market-place and the rounds, and for whatever other service such men are needed.
In like manner, too, when a fortress is garrisoned by allies, let some part of the wall be assigned to each of the allied contingents to guard. And if the citizens are in mutual suspicion, one must station trustworthy men at each ascent of the wall, who will be there to prevent it, should anyone else attempt to climb up.
In peacetime the citizens should be organized in the following way as well. First, appoint for each lane a lane-warden, the most reasonable and prudent man, to whom they will gather if anything unexpected happens by night.
The lane-wardens should lead the lanes nearest the market-place into the market-place, those nearest the theatre into the theatre, and to the other open spaces let each gather those nearest, together with the men who have brought their arms to them.
For thus they would most quickly reach their proper places and be nearest their own homes, and could, while managing their affairs, send word to their households—children and wives—since they would remain not far from them. And the magistrates must have been assigned beforehand by lot the place to which each is to go and from which he will dispatch some of those assembled to the parapets; and they will be leaders to care for the rest, provided they take the lead from the start in the following way.

Chapter 4

They must at once have arranged for themselves signals by which they will not fail to recognize those who approach them. For something of this kind has already happened. Chalcis on the Euripus was captured by an exile setting out from Eretria, one of the men in the city having contrived the following.
In the most deserted part of the city, where there were gates that were not opened, he kept a tower-chamber, and while guarding it by day and night, he secretly by night burned through the bar and there admitted soldiers.
When about two thousand men had gathered in the market-place, the alarm for battle was sounded in haste. Many of the Chalcidians perished through ignorance; for in their terror they brought and laid down their arms before the enemy as if before friends, each man supposing that he himself was the last to arrive.
Thus most of them perished one and two at a time, until some time later they realized what was happening, the city being already in enemy hands.
When at war, therefore, and especially when the enemy are near, one must first see that whatever is sent out from the city by land or by sea on any errand is sent to those who remain behind with signals, both for day and for night, so that they may not be in doubt, when men appear, whether they are friends or enemies.
And when men have gone out on some errand, one should also send others to find out the result, so that those who remain may learn of such matters as far in advance as possible; for it would greatly help, with a view to the future, to prepare from a longer way off.
To those who do not act thus, what has befallen will be made plain by certain things that have already happened, which I cite as a clear example and testimony.
For it was reported to Pisistratus, while he was general of the Athenians, that the men of Megara, arriving in boats, were attempting to attack by night the women of the Athenians who were celebrating the Thesmophoria at Eleusis. Pisistratus, hearing this, laid an ambush beforehand.
And when the men from Megara, supposing themselves undetected, had disembarked and gone some distance from the sea, Pisistratus rose up from the ambush, overcame the men, and destroyed most of them, and became master of the boats in which they had come.
Then at once, having manned the boats with his own soldiers, he took those of the women most suited to sail along, and put in to Megara, late, at some distance from the city.
Seeing the boats sailing in, many of the Megarians came down to meet them—the boards of magistrates and the rest—to look on, supposing, as was natural, that as many captive women as possible were being brought in . . . and the men, disembarking with daggers, struck down some, and seized into the boats as many of the most prominent as they could.
And so it was done. It is clear, then, that gatherings and dispatches must be made with signals, and with the men not failing to recognize one another.

Chapter 5

Next, the gatekeepers should be appointed not at random but men prudent and shrewd, and indeed able always to be suspicious of something being brought in; and besides, men of property, those who have pledges in the city—I mean children and a wife—and not such as might, through want, or the pressure of debts, or some other difficulty, be persuaded by certain people, or might themselves urge others on toward revolution.
Leucon, the tyrant of the Bosporus, used to dismiss from their pay even those of the garrison who were debtors through dicing or other forms of dissipation.

Chapter 6

One must also station day-watchmen before the city, on high ground visible from as far off as possible; and let at least three keep watch at each post, not men taken at random but experienced in war, so that the watchman may not, through ignorance, by his own conjecture, signal or report something into the city and trouble the people to no purpose.
The inexperienced in formations and war suffer this, being ignorant of the enemy's operations and movements—whether they are done by design or by chance.
But the experienced man, recognizing the enemy's preparation and numbers and marches and the rest of the army's movement, will thus make plain the truth.
If there are no such places from which the signals are visible to the city, there should be relays at one place after another to take up the raised signals, who will signal them into the city.
The day-watchmen should also be swift of foot, so that, when something cannot be made plain through signals but one of them must of necessity report it, they may be able to arrive quickly and report from as far off as possible.
It is best, when the ground is suitable for horses and horses are available, to set horsemen in a chain, so that reports may come more quickly by them. The day-watchmen should be sent out from the city at dawn or while it is still night, so that they may not be plainly seen by the enemy's scouts as they go to their watch-posts by day.
Let them not have one and the same watchword . . . , so that neither willingly nor unwillingly, should they be captured by the enemy, may they be able to tell the watchword of those in the city. And the day-watchmen should be ordered to raise their signals from time to time, just as the fire-signallers raise their beacons.

Chapter 7

When the land is rich in crops and the enemy are not far off, it is likely that many of those in the city will be spending their time about the nearby fields, eager for the harvest.
These, then, must be gathered into the city in the following way. First, give the signal to those outside, at sunset, to come back to the city; and if they are scattered over a still wider area of the countryside, let the signal be relayed, so that all, or most, may come into the city.
When the signal to come in has been given to these, the signal is then given to those in the city to take their evening meal; and the third signal is for them to go to their guard and take up their posts.
How this should be done, and how the beacons should be raised, has been told more fully in the book on Preparation, whence the instruction must be taken, so that I may not happen to write twice about the same things.

Chapter 8

After this, when expecting a larger and greater enemy force into the country, one must first make the country hard for the enemy to attack, hard to camp in, hard to draw supplies from, and the rivers hard to cross and more numerous.
As for the enemy's landings, what sorts of contrivances and snares should be prepared for those disembarking on the sandy and firm shores, and what sorts of barriers should be prepared at the harbours of the country and the city, against ships sailing in, or so that ships that have sailed in cannot sail out;
and the things deliberately left behind in the country, but which would be of use to the enemy—for wall-building, say, or tent-making, or some other purpose—
how one must make them useless, or, without destroying them, hide away the food and drink and the ripe produce in the fields and the rest throughout the country, and how one must make the standing waters undrinkable, and the horse-country unfit for horses—
concerning all these matters, how each of them should be done is for the present passed over here, that the work be not, on this point too, made excessively long; but it has been fully written about in the book on Preparation.

Chapter 9

If those advancing against you attempt to grow over-bold, this is what should be done. First, one must occupy with men certain positions of one's own country; then, calling an assembly of one's own soldiers or citizens, announce to them, among other things, that they have some operation in hand against the enemy, and that, whenever the trumpet sounds by night, those of military age are to be ready, take up their arms, gather at an appointed place, and follow their leader.
When this has been reported into the camp of the enemy or into their city, you are able to turn them aside from what they are attempting to do.
By doing this you will inspire confidence in your friends, since you are undertaking something and not fearful, and you will prepare fear for your enemies, so that they will keep quiet in their own land.

Chapter 10

The following too must be ordered: that those of the citizens who possess teams of animals or slaves deposit them for safekeeping among the neighbouring peoples, as men who will not bring them into the city.
And for those who have no friendship with people among whom they may place them, let the magistrates publicly deposit them with the neighbours, arranging the means by which the things deposited will be kept safe.
Then make proclamations of the following kind from time to time, for the sake of frightening and deterring the plotters: that men should bring the free persons and the crops into the city, and that, against the man who does not obey, it shall be lawful for anyone who wishes to drive off and carry away, without penalty, what is out in the country.
The festivals are to be held within the city, and no private gatherings are to take place anywhere, by day or by night, but necessary ones either in the town-hall or in the council-chamber or in some other public place; and no diviner is to sacrifice privately without the magistrate.
Nor are men to dine in common messes, but each in his own house, except at a wedding or a funeral feast, and these having first been announced to the magistrates. And if there are exiles, proclaim that whoever, of citizens or foreigners or slaves, removes anything, what reward each of these shall have.
And if anyone associates with one of the exiles, or with any of their people, or sends or receives letters, let there be some danger or penalty for him. And of letters sent out and brought in, let there be inspection, to whom they are first to be carried.
Those who have more than one set of arms are to register them, and no one is to take any weapon out of the city, nor to accept one as a pledge. No one is to hire soldiers, nor to hire himself out, without the magistrates' leave.
No citizen or resident alien is to sail out without a token, and the boats are to be ordered beforehand to moor at those gates which will be named in what follows.
The foreigners who arrive are to carry their arms in plain sight and ready to hand, and these are to be taken from them at once; and no one is to receive them, nor are the innkeepers to do so, without the magistrates' leave, but the magistrates are to register both who they are and with whom they lodge, whenever they put up.
By night the inns are to be closed from outside by the magistrates. And from time to time, all of them who are vagrants are to be proclaimed and expelled. Those of the neighbouring peoples who reside among them for education or some other need are to be registered.
With public embassies arriving from cities or tyrants or armies, no one who wishes should be allowed to converse on his own, but there must always be present some of the most trustworthy citizens, who shall remain with them as long as the envoys are in residence.
And of whatever the city is short—grain or oil or anything else—let there be set forth, for the man who imports it, interest in proportion to the quantity imported, and let a crown be given him for honour, and to the ship-owner the right of hauling up and launching his ship.
Frequent musters under arms are to be held, and the foreigners resident at that time are to withdraw to an appointed place or remain in their houses; and wherever else any of them appears, let a penalty be set as for a wrongdoer.
And when the signal is given to these men, the trading-places and shops are to be closed, and the lamps put out, and none of the others is to be still abroad;
and whenever some necessity befalls a man, let him go about with a lantern until the contrary order is given. And whoever informs against anyone plotting against the city, or reports any of the aforesaid things being done, let money be announced for him, and let the announced reward be set forth openly in the market-place or on an altar or in a temple, so that one may more readily dare to inform of any of the aforesaid things.
Against a monarch or a general or an exile holding power, these things too should be proclaimed beforehand . . . and if the slayer himself should suffer anything, let the announced money be given to his children;
and if he have no children, to his nearest kinsman. And if any of those associated with the exile or the monarch or the general does some such deed . . . let what is set forth be given him, and let there be return from exile for him; for through these provisions men would more readily set their hands to it.
In a foreign army the following should be done: after calling for silence, let the herald proclaim, all listening,
that if anyone wishes to depart, not being content with the present circumstances, he may go away; but afterward . . . he will be sold; and for offences less than these, by the law set forth the penalty is imprisonment. And if anyone is shown to be harming the army, breaking up the camp,
let the penalty be death. After this, care must be taken for the rest of the dispositions. And first one must examine whether the citizens are of one mind, since this is the greatest good in a siege; but if not, then of those who hold views opposed to the present order of things . . . and above all, if any have become leaders and authors of some action in the city, one should remove them without arousing suspicion, sending them off elsewhere, on some plausible pretext, as envoys and for other public business.
Just so Dionysius dealt with Leptines, his own brother, who stood on familiar terms with the multitude of the Syracusans and whom he saw to be in many ways powerful. Having come into some suspicion of him and wishing to remove him, he did not openly attempt to expel him, knowing that there would be great strength about him, joined with goodwill, and that some revolution might arise; but he contrived as follows.
He sent him with a few foreigners to a city named Himera, ordering him to lead out one garrison and install another. And when he was in Himera, Dionysius sent word and ordered him to wait there until he himself should summon him.
When a city's children are held hostage, and an expedition is made against it, the parents of the hostages and those near in kin should be removed from the city until the siege is over, that they may not, during the enemy's assaults, behold their own children brought up against the walls along with them and suffering the worst; for it is possible that such men, being within, may do something to the contrary.
But if it is difficult to send them out on such pretexts, let them be kept occupied, sharing in as few tasks and operations as possible, and let them have no foreknowledge either of where they will be or of what they will do, and let them be kept least of all by themselves, both night and day; and let the multitude of tasks and services flow over them, one after another, without arousing suspicion, by being engaged in which they will rather be under guard than be guarding anything.
Let them be distributed as for surveillance; for, being so disposed, they would least be able to start a revolution. Furthermore, let no lanterns be carried to their beds, nor any other nocturnal light; for some men, when they are wholly barred from starting any revolution, wishing—though unable to do anything even against the enemy—
have devised the following. Carrying lamps, or torches, or lanterns into the watch-posts together with their baskets and bedding, on the pretext of going to rest, they have made a signal by means of these lights; wherefore one must hold all such things suspect.

Chapter 11

Furthermore, one must also pay attention to those of the citizens who push counter-purposes, and accept nothing at once, for the following reasons.
The plots will be related in order, from the book, by way of example—all those that have occurred in cities at the hands of magistrates or private men, and how some of them, being prevented, came to nothing.
For when Chios was about to be betrayed, one of the magistrates, betraying it along with the rest and deceiving his fellow-magistrates, persuaded them by saying that, since there was peace, the harbour-boom should be hauled up onto land and dried and tarred, and the old tackle of the ships sold off, and the leaking parts of the dockyards repaired, and the colonnade adjoining them and the tower in which the magistrates spent their time, adjoining the colonnade—so that, on this pretext, ladders might be provided beforehand for those who intended to seize the dockyards and the colonnade and the tower.
Moreover he advised that the multitude of those guarding the city be dismissed from pay, so that the expense to the city might seem as small as possible.
And by saying other things of this kind he persuaded his fellow-magistrates to do precisely what was bound to serve the traitors and the attackers toward the capture; so that one must always pay attention to those who are eager to bring such things to completion.
At the same time he had tied to the wall and hung down hides of deer and swine, as though wishing to dry them, and elsewhere sails with their ropes outside; by these, in the night, soldiers climbed up.
Against political opponents the following was done in Argos. When the rich were about to make a second attempt upon the people and were bringing in foreigners, the leader of the people, learning of what was to come beforehand, made two men, who were among those about to make the attempt and were opposed to the people, his pretended secret friends, and set them up as his enemies, and treated them badly in public, but in silence heard from them the plans of the opposing party.
When the rich were in the act of bringing in the foreigners, and at the same time some within the city were ready, and the deed was to take place on the coming night, the leader of the people resolved to summon the assembly with all speed and not to declare beforehand what was coming, that the whole city might not be thrown into confusion; but, saying among other things that it would be expedient that on the coming night all the Argives should be present under arms, each in his own tribe.
And if anyone laid out his arms otherwise, or were seen to have carried them elsewhere, let him suffer as a traitor and a plotter against the people.
This very thing was so that the rich, being in their tribes, might not be able to gather to one place with the foreigners and make their attempt, but, being in the tribes, might be kept apart, a few among many tribesmen. And this seems to have dissolved the plot well and shrewdly and with safety.

10a. Similarly at Heraclea on the Pontus, when there was a democracy and the rich were plotting against the people and about to make their attempt, the leaders of the people, foreknowing what was to come—there being three tribes among them and four hundred-companies—persuaded the multitude that there should be sixty hundred-companies, so that in these the rich might be distributed for the watches and the other services.

And here too it came about that the rich were scattered, and in the hundred-companies few were present at each place among many commons;
and something of this kind happened also long ago at Lacedaemon. For when a plot had been disclosed to the magistrates—that when the cap was raised they would make their attempt—they stopped those undertaking to make the attempt by proclaiming that those who intended to raise the cap should not raise it.
At Corcyra, when a rising of the rich and oligarchic against the people was to take place (and Chares the Athenian was in residence with a garrison, and he favoured the rising), the following was contrived.
Some of the officers of the garrison, after applying cupping-instruments and making cuts on their bodies and getting bloodied, ran out into the market-place as though they had received blows, and at the same time, immediately, the rest of the soldiers, prepared beforehand, brought out their arms, and so did those of the Corcyraeans who were in the plot.
While the rest were ignorant of the matter and had been summoned to an assembly, the leaders of the people were seized, on the ground that a rising had come from them, and they reordered the other affairs to their own advantage.

Chapter 12

When allies enter the city . . . the allies should never spend their time together, but should be dispersed in the same manner and for the same reasons as set forth above.
The same holds when one is about to do something with foreign mercenaries: the citizens who bring them in must always exceed the foreigners in numbers and in power; otherwise,
they themselves and the city fall into the foreigners' hands. So when the Chalcedonians were besieged and allies were present . . . the allies of the Chalcedonians sent them a garrison. While the Chalcedonians were deliberating what was expedient for themselves, the garrison-men declared they would not allow it unless it should also seem expedient to the Cyzicenes; so that to the Chalcedonians the garrison within was far more to be feared than the enemy encamped before them.
One must therefore never receive into one's own city a greater imported force than the citizens themselves possess; and a city employing foreigners must always far exceed the foreigners' force; for it is not safe to be ruled by foreigners and to come under the power of mercenaries.
So it happened to the Heracleots on the Pontus. Bringing in more foreigners than was fitting, they first destroyed their political opponents, then destroyed themselves and the city, being made subject to a tyranny by the man who brought in the foreigners.

Chapter 13

If there is need to maintain foreign troops, this would be done most safely as follows. One must order the wealthiest men in the city, each according to his means, to furnish foreigners—some three, some two, some one; and when as many as you need have been gathered, divide them into companies,
setting over them the most trustworthy of the citizens as company-commanders. Let the foreigners receive their pay and maintenance from those who hired them, part from them and part from the city contributing.
And let them each live in the houses of those who hired them; and let them be gathered for the services and the night-watches and the other duties from the magistrates by the company-commanders who serve them.
Let repayment be made, after some time, to those who spend in advance upon the foreigners, deducting the taxes brought into the city by each; for thus foreign troops would be maintained most quickly and most safely and most cheaply.

Chapter 14

Toward those in the city who wish to act against the established order, one must bear oneself as has been set forth. But the multitude of the citizens one must, for the time, above all lead toward concord, both by winning them over by other means and by lightening the debtors' burden through a reduction of interest, or by remitting it altogether, and, in cases very perilous, by remitting some part of the debts as well, and all when there is need—since such men are by far the most formidable when in reserve—and by bringing into prosperity those who are in want of the necessities.
And how these things might be done fairly and without grieving the rich, and from what resources they might be provided, this too has been written clearly in the book on Resources.

Chapter 15

When these arrangements have been made, if anything is reported, or signalled by beacon, as needing relief, one must go out to the parts of the country being harmed.
The generals present should immediately form up the men, so that they may not, going out scattered and in small bodies to their own holdings, perish through disorder and untimely exertion, being ambushed by the enemy and suffering harm.
But those who come to the gates must gather up to a certain number, say a company or a double company; then, formed up and given a prudent leader, they should so be sent out and hasten on, advancing in formation as much as possible.
Then another and another body should be sent out in this way, and quickly, until enough seem to have gone out to the rescue, so that on the march too the divisions may be in contact, and whether one part must aid another, or all must aid at once, it may be easy to join one another and not arrive on the run from far off.
Before them the available cavalry and light troops must go out first, and these not in disorder, reconnoitering ahead and seizing beforehand the high ground, so that the hoplites may foreknow the enemy's movements from as far off as possible, and nothing may fall upon them suddenly.
At the bends of the ground, and the bases of the hill-tops, and the turnings of the roads, where there are crossroads, there should be signs, so that the men left behind may not be split apart from one another there through ignorance of the way.
And in withdrawing to the city one must retire cautiously, for many reasons, and especially fearing an ambush of the enemy; for already something of this kind has happened over an unguarded relief.
When the Triballi invaded the territory of the Abderites, the Abderites came out against them and, forming a line, did a most splendid deed; for, engaging, they struck down many and conquered a great and warlike host.
But the Triballi, vexed at what had happened, withdrew and recovered themselves, and, coming again into the country and setting ambushes beforehand, ravaged the land of the Abderites not far from the city; and the Abderites, despising them because of their earlier exploit, went out to the rescue in full force with all their strength and zeal; and the Triballi drew them on into the ambushes.
Whereupon, it is said, from a single city—of so great a size, indeed—the greatest number perished in the shortest time. For not even on hearing of the destruction of those who had first gone out did the rest hold back from the rescue, but each man, urging on another, hastened to aid those who had gone out, until the city was emptied of men.

Chapter 16

The following, then, is another and a better method of relief against those who have invaded.
First, then, one must not go to the rescue at once by night, knowing that men would be most disorderly and unprepared before dawn—some hurrying to save their own as quickly as possible from the fields, others fearful of advancing into the dangers, as is natural when things have been freshly announced, and others wholly unprepared.
One must, then, ready the relief by gathering it as quickly as possible, at the same time removing the fear from some, inspiring confidence in others, and arming the rest.
For you must know that those of the enemy who proceed with intelligence and skill in hostile country at first lead their strongest force in formation, expecting some to come against them and being ready to defend themselves; while some of them, scattered over the country, do harm, and others might lie in ambush, expecting some of you to come to the rescue in disorder.
One must therefore not press upon them and harass them at once, but let them first take courage and, having come to despise you, set out for plunder and gain; and at the same time, glutted with food and drink and made drunk, they would become careless and disobedient to their officers.
And from this it is likely that their fights and their withdrawal would go badly for them,
provided you set upon them at the right moment. For when your relief has been made ready at the appointed place and the enemy are already scattered for plunder, you must press upon them thus: with the cavalry seizing beforehand the lines of retreat, with picked men making ambushes, with the rest of the light troops showing yourself to them, and leading the hoplites in a body in formation, but not far from the divisions sent ahead. Attack the enemy in circumstances in which you will not have to fight against your will, but, fighting, will not be at a disadvantage against the enemy.
For the reasons stated before, then, it is sometimes profitable to give way and to let the enemy ravage as much of the country as possible, so that, plundering and laden with spoils, they may easily pay you the penalty; for thus all that has been taken would be saved, and the wrongdoers would receive their deserved punishment.
But by going to the rescue swiftly, you would endanger your own men, unprepared and not formed up, while the enemy would have done but little harm before you came, and, being still in formation, would go off unpunished.
It is much better, as has been written, to give way and attack them when they are off their guard.
But if the spoil from the country eludes you or gets a start of you, you must not make your pursuit by the same roads and the same places; rather, on this side let a few show themselves and, in pursuing, deliberately and without arousing suspicion not overtake them, while another body, with a force of sufficient size, hastens by other roads, marching as quickly as possible, and, getting ahead, in the country of those who are driving off the spoil,
lay an ambush about the borders (and it is likely that you will get there first, arriving earlier in their country, because they, driving the booty, march more slowly), and make the attack upon them while they are taking their evening meal; for the plunderers, being now in their own land and in safety, turn to relaxation and would be more off their guard.
Best of all, so that you may use fresh soldiers, if boats are available, is to make the pursuit by sea; for both getting there first and the rest will fall out for you as needed, provided you are not seen sailing by them.
The Cyrenaeans and Barcaeans and certain other cities are said to make their reliefs, over wagon-roads and at long distances, on two-horse cars and teams; and when these have been brought to the proper place and the teams have been drawn up in line, the hoplites, dismounting and forming up, advanced at once, fresh, against the enemy.
For those, then, who have plenty of teams, the advantage is a fine one—that the soldiers come quickly and fresh to where they are needed; and the wagons would at once be a defence for the camps as well; and the wounded, and any other mischance that befalls the soldiers, would be taken back to the city upon them.
And if the country is not easy to invade, but the entrances are few and narrow, one must, having prepared them beforehand as set forth above and having been so divided, oppose at the entrances those who attempt and wish to advance toward the city, having drawn up beforehand and made the parts know one another's situation by beacons, so that the divisions may give aid if they need one another.
But if the country is not hard to invade, but is one where many may invade at many points, one must seize the useful positions of the country, so that the enemy's passage to the city may be difficult.
And if not even these are available, one must seize, of the rest, positions near the city that favour you, both for fighting to advantage and for getting away easily from the position when you wish to retire to the city; and if, when the enemy have so invaded the country, they march toward the city, you should begin the battle, setting out from these positions.
And one must always make the attacks upon them with an advantage from the country, through familiarity; for you will greatly excel by foreknowing the ground and advancing into such places as you wish—places known and suitable to you, both for guarding yourself, and pursuing, and fleeing, and retiring to the city secretly and openly—and also by foreknowing where the supplies are for you in the country—whereas to the enemy these places are unfamiliar and unknown, and they are deprived of all this.
And knowing that a man inexperienced in the country is not only unable to do anything he wishes, but is even hard put to save himself when those in the country wish to attack, they would, being timidly and cowardly disposed toward everything, come to grief through forming no conjecture about such matters. For it would make as much difference to the two sides as if to the one were allotted fighting by night and to the other by day, if it were somehow possible for this to happen at the same time.
If you have a fleet, the ships should be manned; for those on the ships will harass the enemy no less, provided there is a possibility of coasting along to the seaside places and the roads by the sea, so that the enemy may be harassed both by you and by those from the ships making their landing at their rear.
By doing these things you would attack the enemy when they are most unprepared, and your operations would turn out for them contrary to expectation.

Chapter 17

In a city not of one mind, where the people are in mutual suspicion, one must take forethought and be on guard against the excursions with a crowd—to view a torch-race or a horse-race or the other contests where there are public sacrifices outside the city, and processions sent out under arms—and further, about the public launchings of ships and the carrying out of the dead for burial; for at such a moment too one party may overthrow the other.
I shall set forth, as an example, a disaster that occurred. When a public festival of the Argives was held outside the city, they led out a procession under arms of those of military age; and many of the plotters made their own preparations as well and accompanied them under arms into the procession,
and when they had come near the temple and the altar, most of the men laid their arms at some distance from the temple and went forward to their prayers and the altar. But of the plotters, some remained by the arms, and others stood beside the magistrates and the foremost citizens during the prayers, man by man, holding daggers;
and some of them they struck down, while others of them hurried into the city with their arms. And others of the conspirators, remaining in the city with the hoplites who had been assembled beforehand, seized in advance the appropriate positions of the city, so as to admit those of the outsiders whom they wished. Therefore one must at no moment be off one's guard against such plots.
The Chians, when they hold the Dionysia and send splendid processions to the altar of Dionysus, seize beforehand the roads leading to the market-place with guards and large forces—no small hindrance, surely, to those who wish to start a revolution.
It is best that the magistrates first perform the sacrifice with the chosen force, and that, these having got clear of the crowd, the others then come together.

Chapter 18

When those who have gone out have returned and it grows late, give the signal to take the evening meal and to go to the guard. While the guards are getting ready, attention must in the meantime be given to the gates, that they be well closed; for many slips occur about the bolt-pins, through the slackness of the magistrates.
For when one of them, coming to the gates, does not do the closing himself, but, handing the bolt-pin to the gatekeeper, orders him to close, the following mischief is done by gatekeepers who wish to admit the enemy by night.
One man, by day, threw sand into the bolt-socket of the gates beforehand, so that the bolt-pin would stay outside and not be driven into the hole. And they say that bolt-pins already in place have been removed in this way:
by throwing in a little sand at a time into the bolt-socket and shaking it noiselessly, that no one might perceive it; the bolt-pin then rose up as the sand fell beneath it, so that it was easily removed.
And before now a gatekeeper, having received the bolt-pin from the general to insert, secretly notched the bolt-pin with a graver or a file, threw a noose of flax round it and inserted it, then after a little hauled it up by the flax.
Another, having prepared a thin basket beforehand, inserted it with flax attached, and later hauled it up. And the bolt-pin has also been removed by being struck up from below. And it has even been removed with a fine pair of tongs; and the tongs must have one part like a pipe and the other flat, so as to receive the bolt-pin underneath with the pipe-shaped part and grip it with the other.
Another secretly turned the bar when about to insert it, so that the bolt-pin should not go down into the hole, and the gate, later, on being pushed, should open.
In a city in Achaea . . . men attempting to admit foreigners secretly first took the measure of the bolt-pin in the following way.
Having let down beforehand, by day, into the bolt-socket a noose of fine, strong flax, with the ends outside but hidden, then, when the bolt-pin was inserted in the night, they hauled up by the ends of the flax the noose and the bolt-pin, and, having taken its measure, let it down again. Then, to the measure of the bolt-pin, they made a bolt-puller in the following way.
They had forged a siphon and a basket-needle. The siphon was wrought as it is usually made; but of the basket-needle the sharp and greater part was wrought like other basket-needles, while the handle was hollow, like that of a javelin-butt into which the shaft is inserted.
And at the smith's a shaft was inserted, but when it was carried off it was removed, so that, brought up to the bolt-pin, it fitted. This seems to have been done with forethought, so that the smith should suspect nothing—both for what purpose the siphon was wrought, and the basket-needle, and that the implements were being made.
And before now some have taken the circumference of a bolt-pin while it was in the socket as follows. They wound potter's clay round in a thin linen cloth and let it down, pressing the clay round the bolt-pin with an implement; then they hauled up the clay and took the impression of the bolt-pin, to which they made the bolt-puller.
It fell out that Temenus the Rhodian got Teos, a sizable city in Ionia, betrayed by the gatekeeper. They had agreed, among other things, on a moonless and dark night, on which the one was to open and the other to enter with foreigners.
When the deed was to be done on the coming night, there was with the gatekeeper a man who, since it was late and guards were being posted on the wall and the gates were about to be closed—it being already dark—departed, tying the end of a ball of twisted flaxen thread, which was not likely to break easily.
And he went on unwinding the ball from the city for five stadia, to where those who were to enter would come.
When the general came to close the gates and gave the gatekeeper, as was customary, the bolt-pin to insert, he, receiving it, secretly and noiselessly notched the bolt-pin with a file or a graver, so that flax could be caught in it. Then, putting a noose round it, he let down the bolt-pin held by the flax; and after this, having moved the bar and shown the general that the gate was shut, he kept quiet.
As time went on he hauled up the bolt-pin and tied the end of the cord to himself, for this reason: that, if he happened to fall asleep, he might be woken by the pull of the flax.
And Temenus was present, equipped with those with whom he was to enter, at an appointed place, near the man who held the ball. And it had been agreed beforehand between Temenus and the gatekeeper that, on coming to the spot, he should pull the cord.
And if the things the gatekeeper wished were ready, he was to tie on, to the end of the flax, a tuft of wool and let it go; seeing which, Temenus was to hasten to the gates. But if the gatekeeper failed of his wish . . . he let the flax go without attaching anything, so that Temenus, well ahead, both got away in time and unobserved. They became aware in the night that the cord . . . in the city, and it was not possible to advance.
In the following way a city was betrayed by a gatekeeper. He made it his habit, when the gates were about to be closed, to go out with a water-jar as if for water. Arriving at the spring, he set stones in a place known to the enemy, frequenting which they found, by the stones set out, whatever the guard of the city wished to indicate.
For if he were keeping the first watch, he set one stone at the agreed place; if the second, two; if the third, three; if the fourth, four. And further, at what point of the wall and at which of the watches he was stationed, this too he indicated by this means and so betrayed it. One must, then, taking all these things into account, be on guard, and the magistrate himself must close the gates and not give the bolt-pin to another.
. . . and when doing any such thing, make away with the bar; for before now some opponents, appearing, have forced the gate closed again, the bar being present. Therefore one must take forethought against all such things.

Chapter 19

When sawing through a bar, pour on oil; for it will be sawn through more quickly and more noiselessly. And if a sponge be bound onto both the saw and the bar, the noise will be much more deadened. One might write many other things of this kind; but these must be passed over.

Chapter 20

So that none of these mischiefs may be done, first the general, before he has dined, must do the closing and oversee it himself, and not entrust it to another while carelessly disposed; and in dangerous times he must be wholly attentive about this.
Next, the bar should be plated with iron along its length, in three or four bands; for so it will be unsawable. Then three bolt-pins should be inserted, not all of the same kind, and each of these the generals should keep, one apiece; and if there be more of them,
by lot each day those to whom they fall. Best of all, the bolt-pins should not be removable, but held down by an iron plate, so that the bolt-pin, raised by the pincers, may not be lifted higher than to slip under the bar when the gates are closed and opened; and the pincers should be so contrived that they go under the plate and easily raise the bolt-pin.
The Apolloniates on the Pontus, having suffered one of the aforesaid mischiefs, contrived for their gates to be closed by a great hammer, with a very loud noise, so that it could be heard almost throughout the whole city whenever the gates were closed or opened: so large and iron-plated were the bars.
The same was done at Aegina. And when the gates have been closed, one should give the guards a watchword and a countersign and send them off to the watch-posts.

Chapter 21

Concerning the preparation of implements, and what one must arrange beforehand about a friendly country, and how one must make away with the things in the country or render them useless to the enemy, all this is here passed over; but in the book on Preparation these matters are set forth in full.
And concerning the posting of guards, and the rounds, and panics, and watchwords, and countersigns, the most part should be written in the book on Encampment—in what manner each should be done—but a few of them we shall make plain even now.

Chapter 22

The night-watch in times of danger, when the enemy are already encamped near a city or a camp, should be kept as follows.
The general, the leader of the whole, and those with him, should be posted at the government buildings and the market-place, if it has any strength; but if not, they should seize beforehand the strongest position of the city, and one from which the most of the city can be seen.
About the general's quarters there should encamp and constantly remain the trumpeter and the runners who carry orders, so that, if anything must be signalled or commanded, they may be ready at hand, and the other guards may perceive what is coming, and the patrols, wherever they happen to be on their round of the city.
Then the guards on the wall, and those in the market-place and at the government buildings and the entrances to the market-place and the theatre and the other occupied positions, should keep watch in short shifts, and the watches should be many and the men on duty at once many.
For when men keep watch in short shifts, no one would be able, over a length of time, to do anything against the enemy or get a start in starting a revolution; and sleep would less come upon men keeping watch for a short time; and by having many keep watch at once, anything being done could the more readily be revealed.

5a. It is better, in times of danger, that as many as possible be awake, and that all keep watch in the night, so that as many as possible at each watch may be on guard ahead.

But if few keep watch, and for long stretches, sleep would come upon them through the length of the watches, and if any should undertake to start a revolution, the length of time would allow them both to get a start and to do something against the enemy unobserved; therefore one must not be ignorant of such things.
Moreover, in times of danger one must take forethought also of these things. None of the guards should know beforehand either which watch he will keep or where in the city; nor should the same men always command the same men, but everything about the city-guard should be shifted as frequently as possible; for thus a man would least be able to betray anything to those outside or to receive anything from the enemy,
since the men would not foreknow where on the wall they will be by night, nor with whom, but would be ignorant of what is to come. And those who have kept watch by day should not keep watch by night; for it is not expedient that each foreknow what he is to do.
The outpost-sentries from the watch-posts on the wall would keep their watch ahead as follows. From each watch-post, at each watch, of those keeping the outer guard, one man goes to the next watch-post, and from that one another to the next, and from the others, others to the others; and let it be ordered that absolutely all do this by signals.
And thus many will go the rounds at once, and each will move a little space, and the same men will not constantly be with the same men, watches being frequently exchanged among one another. This being so done, nothing would be set in motion as a revolution by the guards.
Those keeping the outpost-watch should stand face to face with one another; for thus they would be seen on every side from each other, and would least be caught by any who approached secretly—a thing which, as has been shown, has already happened about the day-watch-posts.
On wintry and dark nights they should throw stones, now here, now there, into the part outside the wall, and ask of any who are, as it were, seen by them, who they are; for some who approach would thus be detected by chance.
And if it seem good, the same should be done toward the inner part of the city. But some say this is harmful; for the enemy who approach in the dark would perceive beforehand that there one must not advance, because of the voice of the patrols and the throwing,
but rather toward the place that is silent. Best of all, on such nights, is to have dogs tied up outside the wall, passing the night there, who would reveal from afar the enemy's spy or deserter approaching the city secretly, or anyone setting out to desert; and at the same time they wake the guard, if he happens to be asleep, by their barking.
Wherever the city is easy of approach and open to enemy attack, there one should post as guards those who possess the most and are most honoured and have the greatest stake in the city; for it would most concern them not to turn to pleasures, but to be mindful and attentive.
At the public festivals, of the guards throughout the city, those most suspect to their own people and untrustworthy in their persons should be released from the watch-posts to keep the festival in their houses.
And at once they will seem to be treated with care, and at the same time it will not be in their power to do anything. In their place others, more trustworthy, should be posted at the watch-posts; for it is especially about festivals and such occasions that those who wish to start a revolution make their attempts.
As for the disasters that have occurred about such occasions, they are set forth elsewhere.
Rather, along with these things, the ascents to the wall too should not be easy but kept closed, so that no one wishing to give it up to the enemy may seize beforehand any part of the wall, but the guards whom you wish may of necessity remain upon the wall and not come down; and if any from outside the city should climb over unseen, they may not easily and quickly come down from the wall into the city, unless they are willing to risk leaping down from a height and to neither escape notice nor get there in time. This arrangement about the ascents would befit even a tyrant's citadel.
After the sea-fight at Naxos, the garrison-commander Nicocles, being plotted against, made the ascents closed and posted guards on the wall, and made his rounds outside the city with dogs; for they expected some plot from outside.
In a city of one mind, with no one in it under suspicion, lamps must burn by night in lanterns at the watch-posts on the wall, so that, against whatever quarter an enemy approaches, they may raise the lantern to the general.
And if the lantern is not visible to the general because the ground prevents it, let another relay take it up and show it by lantern to the general, and let the general make what is shown to him plain to the other guards by trumpet or by the runners, whichever is expedient.
At such times, and while the watches are thus kept, let it be ordered to the rest of the populace that, when the signal is given, no one is to go out; and if anyone must go out on some necessary errand, let him go with a lantern, so that he may be plainly seen from afar by the patrols.
Nor is any craftsman or handworker to work, so that no noises may arise from any of them to disturb the guards. And in order that, however the matter stand, with nights becoming generally longer or shorter, the watches may be equal for all, one must keep watch by a water-clock, and change this every ten days.
Rather, the inside of it should be waxed, and when the nights become longer, wax should be removed, so that it may hold more water, and when they become shorter, wax should be added, so that it may hold less. Concerning the equality of the watches, then, let this be enough said by me.
In less perilous circumstances, half of the men set down above should be posted for the watches and the rounds, and thus half the force will keep watch each night; and when things are without danger and at peace, the men should be troubled as little and in as few numbers as possible.
And whenever the general needs rounds made, a token bearing a sign from the general should be handed to the first guard, and he to the next, and one to another, until the token is carried round the city and brought back to the general; and the outpost-sentries should have been told beforehand not to carry the token farther than the next guard.
And if the man who comes finds a post empty of its guard, let him hand the token back to the one from whom he received it, so that the general may perceive it and recognize the man who did not receive it but failed of his watch.
And whoever, when it is his watch, is not present at his appointed place, let his company-commander at once sell off the watch for whatever he can get, and let him appoint someone to keep watch in his stead. Then let the patron from this pay the man who bought the watch, and let the brigade-commander fine him the next day with the customary fine.

Chapter 23

When making sallies secretly by night against the enemy encamped near, take forethought of these things. First, see to it that no one deserts; next, that there be no light in the open, so that the air above the city, being more fiery than the rest, may not reveal what is coming.
And make away with the barking of dogs and the crowing of cocks, rendering them silent at that time by searing some part of their bodies; for the cries of these, uttered before dawn, reveal what is coming.
And some have devised the following stratagem. A pretended faction having arisen among them on a plausible pretext, they watched their moment, and, sallying out, set upon the enemy contrary to expectation, and succeeded.
And before now some men under siege escaped notice in sallying out, also in this way. The gates they walled up visibly to the enemy; but where the enemy were most open to attack, there they spread out a sail and raised it from time to time, so that at first the enemy wondered, but later, as it happened often, they grew careless.
And those in the city, by night breaking through as much of the wall as they wished and preparing a counter-construction, spread the sail. And, watching their moment and sallying out, they set upon the enemy unexpectedly; and in doing this they kept watch lest any should desert. Therefore one must overlook none of such things.
Nor, indeed, must one go out heedlessly with a crowd in the night, such as some plotters contrive at such times—some within the city, some from outside—wishing to draw men out by such deceptions: signalling something by fire, or setting fire to a dockyard or gymnasium or some public temple, or to whatever might cause an excursion of a multitude of men, and not of ordinary ones. One must, then, take forethought and not readily accept such things.
The following action too, by magistrates, shall be set forth. Having arranged beforehand for a disturbance to arise in the country, and for word to be brought from the fields into the city of a raid by robbers, on account of which the citizens were likely to hasten to the rescue,
and this having come about, the magistrates and those who shared their wish called the citizens to the rescue. And when the multitude of the citizens had gathered under arms at the gates, they contrived the following.
The magistrates announced to the assembled men that they must form into three divisions and lie in ambush a little way outside the city, giving them the directions appropriate to what was to come; and to the hearers it was free of suspicion.
And leading some of them out, they set them in suitable places to lie in ambush for the invading enemy; but they themselves, taking men who were in on the action, went forward as if to spy out what was reported and to face the danger before the rest, that they might, forsooth, draw on the enemy into the ambushes as men retreating.
And having gone to a place where there was a foreign force prepared beforehand, brought there secretly by sea, they took them up and, getting there first and unobserved, led them into the city by other roads, as if leading back the citizens who had gone out; and, having seized the city with the foreigners while the citizens were in the ambushes, they exiled some and admitted others. Therefore one must hold all such things suspect and not unthinkingly make a sally of a multitude by night against the enemy.

Chapter 24

In giving out watchwords one must take forethought—if the army happens to be of mixed peoples, from various cities or nations—that, if a single thing furnishes two names, the watchword be not given out ambiguously, as, for instance, "Dioscuri" and "Tyndaridae," two names for one thing, but not the same word;
and at other times "Ares" and "Enyalius," "Athena" and "Pallas," "sword" and "dagger," "torch" and "light," and other things of this kind, which are hard to remember when set against what is customary to each nation of men, and bring harm, if one gives the order in a local tongue rather than something common to all.
Among a mixed body of foreigners, then, one must not give out such words, nor among allied nations. So it befell Charidemus of Oreus, about Aeolis, who captured Ilium in the following way.
The ruler of Ilium had a servant who was always going out for plunder, and especially by night he used to go out and come in, bringing in each time what he had caught.
In the meantime Charidemus, learning that he did this, made friends with him, and, coming to secret terms, agreed with him, and persuaded him to go out on an appointed night as if for plunder; and he ordered him to go out in the night with a horse, so that the gates might be opened for him, and that he might not come in by the slit or by the cut wicket-gate, as he was wont.
When he was outside and had spoken with Charidemus, he received from them about thirty foreigners, cuirassed and carrying daggers and arms and helmets hidden.
Then, having led them off in the night in shabby clothing, and having hidden the arms, and made them resemble prisoners, along with other women and children, these too as prisoners, he went in, the gates being opened for him on account of the horse.
Whereupon those who had come in at once set to work, killing the gatekeeper and rushing to other foreign tasks; and, being masters of the gates, to which presently (Charidemus being not far off) divisions came up, they seized the town.
After this Charidemus himself came in with his whole force. And along with these things he did the following too.
With one part of the army he made ambushes, foreseeing that relief would come to the place. And so it happened; for, perceiving it at once, Athenodorus of Imbros, who was not far off with an army, attempted to bring relief to the place.
But he too happened, shrewdly, to suspect in turn, and went not by the ambushed roads toward Ilium, but, going by others, came unobserved in the night to the gates.
And some of his men, in the confusion, entered the city unobserved along with the rest, as being of Charidemus's army.
Then, before more could enter, they were detected by the watchword, and some of them were thrown out, while others were destroyed about the gates; for to the one party the watchword was "Tyndaridae," to the other "Dioscuri."
And owing to this it came about that the city was not at once recaptured by Athenodorus on that same night. One must therefore give out watchwords easy to remember and as nearly as possible akin to the operations that are to take place, such as these.
For those going out for prey, "Artemis the Huntress"; for some operation of theft, "Hermes the Deceiver"; for an act of force, "Heracles"; for open undertakings, "Sun" and "Moon"; and things as nearly as possible like these and most common to all.
Iphicrates ordered that the patrol and the guard should not even have the same watchword, but that a different one be given to each, so that the one, being asked first, should answer "Zeus the Saviour," if he happened to have that, and the other, being asked in turn, "Poseidon." For thus they would least be tricked by the enemy and have the watchword desert to the foe.
When the guards have wandered apart from one another, they should use a whistle among themselves, and this should be agreed on beforehand; for, except to the one who knows it, it will be unknown to the others, whether they be Greeks or barbarians.
But one must take thought beforehand about the dogs, lest by the whistle there be some disadvantage from them. This device was used also at Thebes, when, having seized the Cadmea, the men were scattered in the night and did not recognize one another, but gathered to a whistle.
The watchwords are to be asked, in common, both of the patrols and of the outpost-sentries; for it is not at all fitting for the one to ask the other—since a patrol might be an enemy who asks.

Chapter 25

Some use countersigns, both because of panics and for the better recognition of friends.
And the countersigns should be as private and as hard for the enemy to know as possible. The countersigns might be such as these. On dark nights, the one asking the watchword should also utter something, or rather make some noise as well, and the one asked should answer the watchword and also utter something else agreed upon, or make a noise. In times of light, the one asking the watchword should take off his cap, or, holding it in his hand, put it on,
and it is possible also to draw the cap down over the face and draw it back from the face,
and further, to fix one's spear in the ground as one approaches, or to take it into the left hand, or to hold it raised in the hand, or to take it up; and the one asked should answer the watchword and do one of these agreed-upon things.

Chapter 26

In times of danger, two of the companies assembled in the market-place should first go the rounds under the wall, alternately to one another, equipped with the available arms and countersigns, so as to recognize one another exactly from a good distance.
Those going the rounds in the first watch should go their rounds without dining; for those keeping the first outpost-watch happen to be just from dinner and are more carelessly and unruly disposed.
They should make their rounds without a lantern, unless it be very stormy and dark; otherwise let the lantern shine, not at all upward (for let it be covered with something), but only toward the ground and the space before the feet.
In a city that keeps horses, and on horse-country in winter, the rounds should be made by horsemen; for in cold and mud and the length of the nights the round would be accomplished more quickly.
And if along with this they also go the rounds on the wall, . . . so that some look to the parts outside the wall, others to those inside;
and those going the rounds should also have stones on dark nights and throw them, now here, now there, into the part outside the wall. But some do not approve of this, for the reasons set down above.
When men are in mutual suspicion . . . the rounds should be below the wall, and the patrols should not go up except the guards. And if an army has suffered hardship, being beaten in battle, whether through the loss of a multitude of dead or wounded, or through the desertion of allies, or through some other mischance, and is despondent and humbled, and there is danger because the enemy are near, one must do, with regard to the watches, the things set down above.
And the rounds, at such times, must be made frequently; and one must not be eager, in the rounds, to find some of the outpost-sentries carelessly disposed through sleep or fatigue; for it is not expedient to make an army so disposed yet more despondent (and it is likely that, when a man is found doing something shameful, he is despondent), but rather to turn to their care and recovery.
And at such times the patrols should be plainly visible from a good distance as they approach the guards, calling out something from afar, so that the outpost-sentry, if he is asleep, may be wakened and may prepare to answer what is asked.
Best of all, in such times, is for the general himself carefully to go each round with the same picked men. But when an army is otherwise disposed, the guards should be examined more sharply.
And the general should never make his round of inspection at the same hour, but always varying it, so that the soldiers, foreknowing clearly long in advance the general's coming, may not keep watch chiefly at that hour.
Some accept and approve the following too, certain men proposing and recommending it. If the city-commander, unwilling to go the rounds through some fatigue or sickness, yet wishes to know the man not keeping watch at each watch, he should do as follows.
Let it be agreed beforehand with all the guards on the wall that there should be lanterns, and one to which all the outpost-sentries will raise theirs in answer; and let it be raised from a place whence all the guards on the wall can see it.
And if there be no such place, let one be prepared, as high as possible, out of available materials. Then from this let a lantern be raised, and in answer to it let the others be raised, one by one, from each watch-post. Then let them be counted, and so let it be known whether all the outpost-sentries raised theirs, or one of the guards is missing.

Chapter 27

As for the sudden disturbances and fears that arise about a city or camp, by night or by day, which are called by some "panics" (the name is Peloponnesian, and especially Arcadian),
against these, some recommend, wishing to allay them, that signs be agreed on beforehand with those in the city, by seeing which they will know; and they will know that it is a panic in this way: they will perceive, by fire, something agreed on beforehand, on a spot well visible, as far as possible, to all in the city.
Best of all is for it to have been ordered beforehand that, in whatever quarter of the soldiers a fear arises, they keep still in their place and raise a paean, or say that it is a panic, and the one who hears it always passes the word to his neighbour.
In whatever quarter of the army they do not answer the paean, one should know that the fear is there. And if the general perceives anything to be feared, let him signal with the trumpet; and let this be understood to mean that it is an enemy. After a battle, and when men have been beaten, fears for the most part arise, sometimes even by day, and by night very much.
So that something of this kind may less occur, the order should be given for the night to all the soldiers to be by their arms as much as possible, on the ground that something is going to happen about them.
Foreknowing, then, it is likely that, if anything occurs, they will not fall upon it unexpectedly, nor be thrown into confusion by sudden fears and perish.
Euphratas, the Laconian harmost in Thrace, when frequent fears arose at night in his army and they could not be stopped by any other means, gave the following order for the night.
Whenever a disturbance arose, they were at once to sit up to their arms in their beds, and no one was to stand upright; and if anyone saw a man standing upright, he ordered it proclaimed among all that they should treat the man who had risen as an enemy.
For through fear of what had been ordered he thought no one would be unmindful. Besides this, so that the order might truly be carried out in fear, when some disturbance arose, one of the better men was struck, not fatally, and one of the worse so that he even died.
And when this had happened, the men obeyed, and, being cautious, ceased both from the disturbances and from rising in terror from their beds.
It was stopped also in the following way. In a camp disturbed by night, the herald, having proclaimed silence, announced that whoever informed against the man who had let loose the horse, on account of which there had been the disturbance, would receive a gift of money.
And one should, if an army suffers anything of this kind at night, at each watch station men of each company or division at the wings and the centres who will give heed, so that if they perceive anyone coming out of sleep, or some disturbance otherwise arising, the man present may at once check and prevent it immediately.
And of the rest of the multitude, from each mess one man should keep watch, so that, if any fear arises, these, knowing the groundless fears, may allay them, each among his own people.
To cause disturbance by night in the enemy's army oneself, one should let loose into their camp herd-cattle with bells, and other beasts of burden, having given them wine to drink.
When day comes, the guards should not at once be released from the watch-posts before the outside has been reconnoitered and shown to be clear of enemies; and so let those from the watches depart, not all at once but in detachments, so that some may always remain at the watch-posts.

Chapter 28

The following too must be taken forethought of when a city is in fear. Of the gates, the rest should be closed, and one opened, where the city is hardest to approach and where those who approach will be visible from the greatest distance,
and in this gate a wicket, so that men may go out and come in one at a time by the wicket-gate; for thus a man deserting, or a spy coming in, would least escape notice,
provided the gatekeeper be intelligent. To open the whole gate, for the sake of beasts of burden and wagons and freight, is perilous. And if anything must be quickly brought in—grain or oil or wine, or things like these—with wagons or a multitude of bearers, these must be brought in by the nearest gates, . . . and thus they would be brought in most quickly and easily.
In general, the gates should not be opened early, heedlessly, but rather late, and no one should be let out before the area around the city has been reconnoitered; and further, boats should not moor at these gates but farther off—since already, by day, many operations have taken place with both leaves of the gates open, through contrivances and pretexts of the following kind. From a single instance many things done in like manner to this will be recognized.
Pytho the Clazomenian, with some in the city sharing his wish, having watched exactly for the quietest part of the day, seized Clazomenae with wagons that, by arrangement, were bringing in jars; the wagons remaining in the gates, at which, foreigners having been posted beforehand secretly not far from the city, eluding some of the citizens, anticipating others, and having some within as accomplices, they held the city.
And Iphiades of Abydus, capturing Parium on the Hellespont, made other preparations secretly by night for the ascent of the wall, and, having filled wagons with brushwood and brambles, sent them to the wall, the gates being already closed, as if the wagons belonged to the Parians—which, coming to the gates, bivouacked there, as though in fear of enemies.
These were to be set alight at a certain moment, so that the gates might be burned, and, when the Parians rushed to put out the fire, he himself might enter at another point. It seems to me that I should, gathering the matter together, make plain what one must guard against and at what times in each case, so that one may accept nothing in simple-minded fashion.

Chapter 29

Concerning the vessels and burdens brought into the city, in which something secret may be contained—by which cities and citadels have already been seized—
it will now be made plain. These one must beware of and not be heedless about, and especially the gatekeeper, at certain times, when there is something to fear from outside or within. And one must attend to them as they are brought in. I shall set forth, by way of example, things that have happened in actual operations.
For a city was seized, with some within sharing the wish, during a public festival, in the following way.
First, to the foreigners who had taken up residence beforehand with a view to what was coming, and to those of the citizens who were to be unarmed and accomplices, there were brought in linen cuirasses and small frocks and helmets, arms, greaves, swords, bows, arrows, packed in chests as if for freight, as though containing clothes and other goods;
which the harbour-inspectors, opening and seeing as clothes only, sealed up, until those who brought them in should pay duty.
And these were set down near the market-place, where they were needed; and in baskets and matting and half-woven sails, spears and javelins were wrapped and brought in, and set down where each was needed, without arousing suspicion; and in vessels of chaff and wool, light shields and small bucklers were hidden in the wool and chaff, and other bulkier things in hampers full of raisins and figs, and daggers in jars of wheat and dried figs and olives.
Daggers were also brought in, bare, in cucumbers and melons, thrust down by their stalks into the seeds of the cucumbers. And the plotter and leader was brought in from outside in a load of brushwood.
When night had come and those who were to make the attempt had gathered, each watching the moment he was assigned—the one in which the rest throughout the city were most given to wine, as is natural at a festival—first the load was undone, and from it the leader was made ready; then some of them unrolled the matting for the taking out of the spears and javelins, others emptied the vessels of chaff and wool, others cut open the hampers, others, opening the chests, took out the arms, and others smashed the jars, that the seizing of the daggers might be swift.
And these things, being not far from one another, were set in motion at the same time, from a signal in the city, and as if formed into a phalanx.
Each man being armed with the appropriate arms, some of them rushed to seize towers and gates, at which they expected the rest, others to the government buildings and the houses of their opponents, others held one place and others another.
For operations like those described, some who needed shields, since they could in no other way prepare or bring them in, brought in a quantity of osiers and along with these workmen.
And in the open they wove other vessels, but at night they wove arms—helmets and shields—to which they fitted handles of leather and wood. Furthermore, neither of the boats mooring by sea, by night and by day, whether large or small, should one be incautious, but the harbour-guards and dispatchers, going aboard, should themselves view the cargoes, reflecting that the Sicyonians too, by neglecting such things, came to great grief.

Chapter 30

One must also take forethought of the arms brought in for sale and set out in the market-place, both those in the small shops and the general stores, which, when gathered, would amount to some quantity, so that they may not be ready to hand for anyone wishing to start a revolution.
For it is foolish to take their arms from the men who arrive, while in the market-place and the apartment-houses there are heaps of small shields and chests of daggers gathered together. Therefore the arms that come in and are gathered should not be carried out into the market-place and left overnight wherever it may chance, but, except for a sample, the rest of the quantity, before anyone sets it out, should be subject to public adjudication.

Chapter 31

Concerning secret letters, the methods of sending are of all kinds, and it must be agreed privately between sender and receiver; but those that best escape notice would be such as these. A letter was sent thus.
Into freight or other baggage was put a book, or some other writing, of whatever size and age. In this the message had been written by marking the letters of the first line, or the second, or the third, with very small dots, undetectable except to the one to whom it was sent. Then, when the book came to the one for whom it was meant, he copied it out and, setting the marked letters in order, those from the first line and the second and the rest likewise, he learned what had been sent.
If one wished to send a few words, one might also do as follows, in like manner to this. Having written a letter openly about certain matters at some length, in this same letter one does the same thing, marking letters by which you will make plain whatever you wish. And let the marking be as undetectable as possible, by dots at wide intervals or by little oblong strokes. To others these will give no suspicion, but to the one to whom it is sent the letter will be intelligible . . .
Let a man be sent carrying some message, or even a letter about other, open matters; and into the sole of the shoe of the man about to travel secretly let a paper be inserted, between the layers, and sewn up; and, against mud and water, let it be written on tin beaten thin, so that the writing not be effaced by the water.

4a. When he has come to the one for whom it is meant, and is resting in the night, let the latter undo the stitches of the shoes and, taking it out and reading it, write something else secretly while the man still sleeps, and, sewing it in, send the man off, with an answer, or even giving him something openly to carry.

Thus neither anyone else nor the carrier will know; and the stitches of the shoes must be made as undetectable as possible.
To Ephesus letters were brought in the following way. A man was sent carrying a message written on leaves, and the leaves were bound on a sore on his shin.
Writing might also be brought in in the ears of women, having, instead of earrings, thin rolled strips of lead inserted.
A letter about a betrayal was carried into the camp of the besieging enemy by the betrayer as follows. To one of the horsemen going out from the city against the enemy's foragers, a paper was sewn under the flaps of his cuirass; and he was charged that, if any appearance of the enemy should occur, he should fall from his horse as if against his will and be taken alive, and, on coming into the camp, the paper should be given to the one for whom it was meant. And the horseman served, brother for brother.
Another, sending out a horseman, sewed a paper into the headstall of the bridle. And the following happened about a letter. When a city was being besieged, the man bringing the letters, having got inside the city, did not give them to the betrayer and the rest for whom he was carrying them, but went to the ruler of the city and, informing him, gave him the letters.

9a. And he, hearing this, ordered that these letters be given to those for whom they were carried, but that the answers from them, if the informer told the truth, be brought to him; and the informer did so. And the ruler, taking the letters and summoning the men, showed the seals of the signet-rings, which they admitted to be their own, and, undoing the papers, made the matter plain.

9b. He seems to have detected it skilfully, in that he did not take back the letters sent by the man; for it was open to them to deny it and to say that they were being plotted against by someone. But the answers, when he took them, he refuted them beyond contradiction.

It is also carried thus. Take a bladder of equal size to a flask, as large as you wish for the quantity to be written, inflate it and tie it off and dry it thoroughly; then write upon it whatever you wish with thick ink of glue.
When the writing is dry, let out the breath of the bladder and, compressing it, put it into the flask; and let the mouth of the bladder project above the mouth of the flask.
Then inflate the bladder while it is in the flask, that it may be stretched as wide as possible, and, having filled it with oil, cut off the part of the bladder projecting above the flask, and fit it to the mouth as undetectably as possible, and, stopping the flask, carry it openly. The oil will then be transparent in the flask, and nothing else will appear to be in it.
When it comes to the one for whom it is meant, let him pour out the oil and read it by inflating the bladder; and, wiping it off and writing in the same way upon the same bladder, let him send it back.
And before now a man, having written on the wood of a writing-tablet, melted wax over it and wrote other things on the wax. Then, when it came to the one for whom it was meant, scraping off the wax and reading it, and writing again in the same way, he sent the message. It is also possible, having written on boxwood with the best ink, to let it dry, then, whitening it over, to make the writing disappear. So when it comes to the one to whom it is sent, let him take the boxwood and place it in water; all the writing will then appear exactly in the water.
One might also write whatever one wishes on a votive tablet of the old style. Then, having whitened it over and let it dry, paint a horseman bearing a torch, or whatever you wish, in white clothing and on a white horse; or, failing that, in some other colour, except black. Then give it to someone to set up near the city, in whatever temple it may chance, as if in fulfilment of a vow.
And the one who is to read what is written must go to the temple and, recognizing the tablet by some prearranged sign, carry it home and place it in oil; all the writing will then appear. The most undetectable sending of all, but now the most laborious, will be made plain to me by means of non-letters.
It is as follows. Bore in a sizable knuckle-bone twenty-four holes, six in each side of the knuckle-bone; and let the holes of the knuckle-bone be the letters of the alphabet.
Remember from which side you begin the alpha and the letters following, those written in each side. After this, when you wish to set down some message in them, draw a thread through; for example, if you wish to signify "Aeneas," in the threading of the thread begin from the side of the knuckle-bone in which the alpha is, and draw through, and, passing over the letters next to it, when you come to the side where the iota is, draw through again; and, passing over the letters next to that, where the nu happens to be, draw through; and again, passing over the letters next to that, where the eta is, draw the thread through; and so, copying out the rest of the message, thread it into the holes,
as we have just set down a name. There will then be about the knuckle-bone a ball of thread wound up; and the reader will need to write down on a tablet the letters indicated by the holes. And the unthreading is the reverse of the threading. And it makes no difference that the letters be written in reverse order on the tablet; for they will be recognized none the less. And it is more work to make out what has been written than for the work itself to be done.
This would be more conveniently done with a piece of wood about a span long, bored with as many holes as there are letters; then thread the flax into the holes in the same way. And wherever it happens that two threadings fall into the same hole—as when the same letter is to be written twice in succession—wind the flax round the wood beforehand and then thread it. It might also be done thus.
Instead of the knuckle-bone and the wood, make a wooden disc and smooth it, and bore in order, round in a circle, the twenty-four letters of the alphabet; and, for the sake of disguise, bore others too in the middle of the disc, then thread the flax into the letters lying in order.
And when the same letter is to be written twice, first thread from the holes in the middle and then thread into the same letter; by "letter" I mean the hole.
And before now some, having written on a thin piece of paper long lines in small letters, that the letter might be as compact as possible, then placing it on the shoulder of the tunic and folding the little tunic over the shoulder, made the carrying of the letter seem above suspicion, since a man had put on the little tunic and was so carrying it.
Here is proof that it is hard to guard against things brought in with intent. The men about Ilium, even after so long a time and so strained in vigilance, cannot yet guard against the entry to them of the Locrian maidens; and yet so great is their zeal and their watch. But a few, attending to escaping notice, escape notice, year after year, in bringing in persons.
And among the men of older times something of this kind too was once contrived. When Timoxenus wished to betray Potidaea to Artabazus, they agreed with one another, the one upon some spot of the city,
the other upon some spot of the camp, into which they shot whatever they wished to make plain to one another. And he contrived it thus: winding the paper round the notches of the arrow and feathering it, they shot into the agreed-upon spots.
But Timoxenus was detected in betraying Potidaea; for Artabazus, shooting at the agreed-upon spot, missing the place because of the wind and poor feathering, struck the shoulder of a man of Potidaea; and a crowd ran round the man who was struck, as is wont to happen in war; and at once, taking the arrow, they brought it to the generals, and so the act was detected.
Histiaeus, wishing to signal to Aristagoras to revolt, since he could in no other way safely indicate it, the roads being watched and it being not easy to escape notice carrying letters, shaved the most trustworthy of his slaves, tattooed him, and waited until the hair grew back.
As soon as it grew back, he sent him to Miletus, charging the tattooed man with nothing else but that, when he came to Aristagoras at Miletus, he should bid him shave and look at his head. And the tattoo-marks signified what he was to do.
One may also write thus. Having agreed beforehand to set the vowels in pricks, whatever number each happens to be, in the things written let there be that many dots.
For example: "Dionysius is lame." D::·:n:::s:::·:s k·l·m·. "Let Heracleides come." l·t ·:r·kl::d:s k·m·. And here is another: instead of the vowels, set whatever you please. And this: the letters sent to a certain place . . . becoming plain to the one to whom they are sent on his coming into the city and selling something or buying, that letters have come for him and lie in the place named beforehand. And so neither does the carrier know to whom they have been brought, nor will the receiver be known to have them. And many in Epirus have used dogs in the following way.
Leading off a dog tied up, they put round its neck a strap in which a letter was sewn. Then they let it go by night or by day, toward the place from which it had been led off, to which it had of necessity to return. This is a Thessalian device too.
And one must open at once the tablets that arrive. When a letter was sent to Astyanax, tyrant of Lampsacus, in which was written matter disclosing the plot by which he was killed, owing to his not opening at once and reading what was written, but neglecting it and turning first to other things, he was destroyed, holding the letter on his fingers.
For the same cause the Cadmea at Thebes too was seized, and at Mytilene in Lesbos things much like these were done.
Glus, the King's admiral, having gone up to the King, since it was not possible to come in to the King's presence holding memoranda in a book (and he had to remember many great matters), wrote on the spaces between the fingers of his hand the things of which he had to speak. About the care of such things the gatekeeper must take pains, so that nothing—neither a weapon nor letters—may be brought into the city unobserved.

Chapter 32

Against the enemy's approaches with engines or with men, one must take counter-measures as follows. First, against the things raised up from towers or masts or the like, by which the things brought up must be over-topped, sails should be stretched out, hung from cables, wrapped round certain uncut beams. And among other things, send up a great smoke beneath them and kindle as great a fire as possible, making it blaze;
raise up in answer wooden towers, or other heights, of baskets filled with sand, or of stones, or of bricks. Screens of reeds, set together upright and crosswise, would also stop the missiles.
And against the engines that fall upon the parapets—the ram and the like—defences should be prepared: sacks filled with chaff hung out in front, and vessels of wool, and freshly-flayed ox-hide skins inflated or filled with something, and other things of this kind.
And when it breaks through a gate or some other part of the wall, one must catch up the projecting beam with a noose, so that the engine may not be able to strike home.
And one must prepare so that a stone of a wagon-load, let fall, strikes and shatters the drill; and let the stone be let fall from the projecting beams, held by pincers.
And so that the falling stone may not miss the drill, a plumb-line should be let down beforehand, and when this falls upon the drill,
straightway let the stone fall after it. Best of all, against the things breaking through the wall, is also to have prepared the following. When you know where it is being brought up to the wall, there, from within, you must prepare a counter-ram, digging through the wall as far as the inner part of the bricks, so that the enemy may not see it beforehand; and when the breaching-engine is near, then strike with the counter-ram from within; and the counter-ram becomes far stronger.
Against the great engines, on which many men are brought up and from which missiles are let fly—among others catapults and slings—and against roofed houses fire-bearing arrows: against these engines, first the men in the city must secretly dig under the approaches of the engine, so that the wheels of the engines, falling in, may sink into the diggings; then raise up from within, of baskets filled with sand and stones from what is at hand, a defence which both will over-top the engine and will render the enemy's missiles useless.
Cover over, at the same time, with thick curtains or sails, as defences against the missiles let fly in, which will both stop those missiles that come over and gather them easily,
so that nothing falls to the ground. And do the same wherever else the missiles, passing over the wall, harm and wound the men serving and those passing along.
And wherever a tortoise, brought up to the wall, can dig through or throw down some part of the wall, there one must oppose it, prepared.
Against the dug breach make a great fire; against the falling of the wall dig a trench within, so that they may not enter; and at the same time raise up a counter-wall, building it before the wall falls, where it is being dug through, if you cannot otherwise prevent it.

Chapter 33

Upon the tortoises brought up one must pour pitch and throw tow and sulphur; then, kindling a faggot and setting it alight, let it down by a rope upon the tortoise. Such things, projected from the wall, are thrown upon the engines brought up. One must set these on fire as follows.
Let there be prepared pieces of wood like pestles, but much greater in size; and into the ends of the wood drive sharp iron points, smaller and larger, and round the other parts of the wood, both above and below, strong preparations of fire, separately. And let the shape be like the thunderbolt that is painted. This must be let fall onto the engine brought up, fitted out so as to be fixed into the engine, and so that the fire stays when it is fixed in.
Then, if there be any wooden block-houses of the city, or any part of the wall, one must have, against their being set on fire by the enemy, felts and hides for the battlement.
And if the gates be burned, bring up wood and, throwing it on, make as great a fire as possible, until you have trenched the inside and built a counter-wall, as quickly as possible, out of what is at hand; or, failing that, by pulling down the nearest houses.

Chapter 34

If the enemy attempt to set anything on fire with a strong fire-preparation, one must quench it with vinegar; for then it no longer easily catches. Better still, smear it beforehand with birdlime; for fire does not catch hold of this.
Those quenching the fire from the higher points should have a guard about the face, that they may be less troubled as the flame darts up at them.

Chapter 35

One should oneself prepare a strong fire in the following way—one that is not at all easily quenched. Pitch, sulphur, tow, frankincense-meal, sawdust of pine-wood: kindle these in vessels and bring them to bear, if you wish to set any of the enemy's works on fire.

Chapter 36

Against the setting-up of ladders one must take counter-measures as follows. If the ladder, when set up, projects above the wall, one must, when the climber is at the top, then push the man or the ladder off with a forked pole, unless you can otherwise prevent it because of being shot at from below;
but if the ladder is level with the wall, one cannot push off the ladder, but must push off the men who climb over. And if these things seem impossible, one must have made a kind of door of planks, and then, when the ladder is brought up, set it beforehand under the ladder being brought up; and when the ladder comes against the door, the door being of necessity drawn under, the ladder falls, a roller having been set beneath, and it will not even be able to stand against the wall.

Chapter 37

Those who dig mines one must prevent as follows. If you think you are being mined, you must dig as deep a trench as possible on the outside, so that the mine may come into the trench and the miners be seen.
And if it is in your power, build a wall in it of the strongest and largest stones. But if you cannot build with stones,
bring up a heap of wood . . . and if the mine-galleries fall in upon the trench at any point, there throw on wood and set the heap alight and cover over the rest, so that the smoke may pass into the dug passage and do harm to those in the mine; and it is possible for many of them to perish by the smoke.
And before now some, letting wasps and bees loose into the dug passage, have harmed those in the mine.
And one must, to speak simply, counter-mine wherever they dig, and oppose them and set fire . . .
the man fighting in the mine. An old story is told . . . of Amasis besieging the Barcaeans, when he attempted to mine. And the Barcaeans, perceiving the attempt of Amasis, were at a loss, lest he should escape notice or get ahead; and then a smith found out a contrivance by reflection: carrying about a bronze shield within the wall, he held it against the floor.
Now elsewhere it was dumb to that against which he held the bronze; but where it was being mined, it rang in answer. The Barcaeans, then, counter-mining there, killed many of the miners. Whence even now men use this device, recognizing where they are being mined.
To whom it falls to ward off the contrivances coming against them from the enemy has been made plain; and for those who intend to mine, the following would be the strongest screen.
One must tie the poles of two wagons together to the same point, spreading them at the other end of the wagon, so that the poles may be raised aloft, inclining to the same point; then so tie on other pieces of wood, and matting, and other screens above, and plaster these with clay. This, then, will both serve to bring up the wheels wherever you wish and to draw them back, and under this screen the miners are to be.

Chapter 38

In the enemy's assaults upon the wall, with engines or even with men, those in the city who do the fighting must be drawn up in three divisions, so that some fight, some rest, and some prepare, and there may always be fresh men on the wall.
Some others, picked out in greater number, must go round the wall in a circle with the general, always aiding any part that is hard pressed; for the enemy fear what is coming on more than what is already present and at hand. And the dogs must be tied up at this time;
for, with the men running through the city under arms and amid uproar, the dogs, rushing out through unfamiliarity, would be troublesome by pressing about.
To those fighting on the wall one must give such exhortation as each needs, praising some and entreating others; but let no one go after anyone in anger, nor go after men at random;
for they would be the more despondent. But if any must be gone after for being careless and disorderly, let it be those who possess the most and have the greatest stake of power in the city; for this would be an example to the rest as well. At what times each of these things must be done is written in the Acousmata.
Hand-stones should not be allowed to be thrown at the wrong moment, and one should have made arrangements so that those thrown in the day may by night be gathered up again, as follows.
One must let men down in baskets along the wall, who will gather them up; and the men who have gathered the hand-stones must climb up onto the wall by hides of swine or deer hung down, or by ladders made of ropes.
Let these be equal in number to the men gathering, so that, if any are hard pressed, they may climb up quickly; for the gates must not be opened by night, but such ladders must be used, and for anyone else you wish.

Chapter 39

Those under siege must also contrive things of this kind. At the gates, and toward the inner part, having dug a trench, leaving a passage on either side, then, certain men sallying out, skirmish and draw on the enemy, so that they run in together into the city.
Those, then, of the city who flee back into the city must run in on either side along the passages left; but the enemy who run in with them are likely, not foreknowing the trench, and it being at the same time hidden, to fall in and be destroyed by those within the city at that moment; and of these there should be some drawn up in the passages and at the spaces by the diggings of the gates.
But if more of the enemy press in and you wish to hold them in, one must have prepared above, from the gate-tower, a gate of the thickest possible timbers, plated with iron.
Then, whenever you wish to cut off the enemy who run in, let this fall straight down; and the gate itself, falling, will destroy some, and will keep the enemy from entering, and at the same time those on the wall throw at the enemy who are by the gates.
And one's friends must always be told beforehand, if ever the enemy fall in with them, where in the city they are to gather, so that one's friends may be recognized by the place; for it is not easy, when they are mixed together under arms and falling in amid uproar, to be recognized.
And before now, against those who are over-bold and approach the wall nearer than is fitting, by night or by day, men have prepared nooses—secretly by day, openly by night—with which, drawing the man on by skirmishes, they haul up the one who falls in.
Let the noose be of the strongest rope, and let the hauling part, for two cubits, be a chain, that it not be cut through; and the rest, by which they haul, of cord. The whole is let down within and hauled up by ropes or swing-beams. And if the enemy attempt to cut it through, against this those within use swing-beams in turn, letting it down, that it not be cut through; for chains, against such things, are laborious and hard to handle, and at the same time unprofitable.

Chapter 40

If the city is large and the men in it are not enough to surround the city in a circle, but you wish to guard it with those available, one must build up, at whatever points of the city are easy of approach, heights out of available materials, so that, if any of the enemy climb up, either secretly or by force, finding themselves in unfamiliar ground, they may not be able to leap down from the heights, having at the same time no way at all to come down. And along the buildings, on either side, let the available men keep watch, so that they may destroy those who leap down from the heights.
Dionysius, having brought a city under his power—the men in it being some dead and some fled—wished to hold it; but it was larger than to be guarded by a few.
He set over it, then, certain overseers with a few men, as many as was possible; and to the household slaves of the most powerful men in the city he gave in marriage the daughters and wives and sisters of their masters; for thus he thought they would be most hostile to the masters and more trustworthy to himself.
The Sinopeans, at war with Datames, when they were in danger and short of men, dressed up and armed the most suitable of their women as much like men as possible, and, instead of arms and helmets, gave them jars and bronze vessels like these, and led them round the wall where the enemy were most likely to see them.
But they did not let them throw; for a woman throwing is clearly seen from afar. And in doing this they watched the deserters, lest it be reported.
If you wish to make the patrols on the wall appear more numerous, you must go round in twos, holding their spears, the one rank on the left shoulder, the other on the right; and so they will appear as four.
And if they go round in threes, let the first man hold his spear on the right shoulder, the second on the left, and the others likewise; and so they will appear as one in two.
Concerning food without grain, and the things that are scarce in a siege, and how one must make waters drinkable, it has been made plain in the book on Preparation. Since these things have been said by us, I shall go through the order of a fleet. Of a naval force there are two kinds of armament . . .