Augustus Road

This huge "thing" was designed by Pope, the equipment director of Lepidus, after personally watching the battle at the front of the blockade for several days. ?. . Because the remaining Albisi barbarian warriors began to show their prowess in the short battle between the earth ramparts and the Acropolis walls. Many soldiers complained that although the T-shaped earth ramparts and trenches could serve as a measure of cover and isolation, the projectiles of Masseria in the Acropolis were also very terrifying. Their powerful crossbows could shoot twelve-foot-long wooden bars with iron heads through several fences and wooden fences, destroying our walls and equipment. In addition, the Albisi in the city could easily climb up the earth ramparts, forcing our soldiers to fight hand-to-hand with them, causing considerable damage.

"The soldiers need stronger protection and higher temporary towers that can shoot stones and javelins into the city instead of being threatened by the firepower inside the city." This was Pope's report to Lepidus, so the siege commander immediately allocated a huge sum of 100 talents from the treasury and handed it to Pope and the engineering detachment, asking him to use this money to mobilize the manpower, wood, bricks, and iron of the entire old Gaul and Liguria region, and boldly do it according to the style required by the soldiers.

Initially, Pope slightly modified the earth rampart and erected a large wooden shield with a length of 60 Roman feet, which was supported by a slanted surface, on the outer perimeter of 15 Roman feet outside the wall. The inside was reinforced with two cross beams and the outside was wrapped with animal skins, so that it could block the weapons shot from the top of the city. As a result, the soldiers and the conscripted laborers built a low brick temporary fortress with four walls and an attack passage on the protruding part outside the T-shaped earth rampart. The wall of this fortress was five Roman feet thick and each side was 30 Roman feet long. Then, the soldiers were excited and asked Pope to build a higher and bigger one. So they worked hard. Pope first set up a lifting device inside, and then hid the wooden floor and grilles behind the brick wall to prevent it from being set on fire by the enemy. Then, under the cover of shields, the soldiers built higher walls on the floor, made a roof cover, set up cross beams to reinforce it, and used a crane to lift it up. This time, the grille of the cover was made to protrude slightly and reinforced on the wall with wooden stakes and iron nails. The protruding grille was of course meaningful - it served as a hook. The soldiers used the ship's cables to hang huge shoji on the three sides facing the enemy. It was also mixed with asbestos, a soft thing that insulated the flame. It could prevent the enemy's arrows and javelins from piercing, and it could also block the damage of thrown torches. In addition, the soldiers also covered the top floor with mud and plaster to prevent fire. In this way, this semi-permanent siege tower, called "Aemilius Beast" by the Acropolis soldiers, finally built six stories high and reached the sky. While it was being built, the Masselians constantly launched raids in an attempt to destroy it, but it was of no avail. On the contrary, their own corpses covered the feet of the beast. By analogy, in the end, there were three such "Beast Siege Towers" at two siege attack points, and their heights exceeded the height of the Masselian Acropolis. Then, Lepidus's soldiers drilled holes in each layer above, and placed the crossbows, belly bows, scorpion crossbows, and stick throwers on them, and then shot stone bullets, fire spears, and arrows like a meteor shower into the Acropolis from all directions!

"Fire the duty cannon every day!" This was their password.

After a few days, the towers in the Acropolis were all destroyed or half-destroyed, and the dead and wounded filled the ditches and streets. Triari hid in a solid residence like a turtle, and never talked about being the "third party" in this war. Then, Lepidus' soldiers began to make persistent efforts. Following the siege tower, after confirming that the enemy's Acropolis fortifications could not threaten them, they began to build a long dragon-like canopy, extending to the foot of the city wall. First, two beams of the same length were placed on the ground, four Roman feet apart, and then five Roman feet high pillars were erected on them with iron nails, and then diagonally crossed rafters were built in between. Then, on the rafters, two Roman feet thick wood was spliced ​​with iron nails to form the upper cover plate, and then on the cover plate, imitating the building gable, bricks and wooden beams were used to make a rapidly inclined triangular roof on both sides, with tiles and mud on top, and asbestos in the middle.

Under the shed, the soldiers stuffed rolling logs, which were originally used on ships, but now used to move the shed. They stretched them section by section under the city wall. The sheds were like countless tentacles of a giant beast, which frightened the defenders. They tried every possible way. First, they used levers to pry up huge stones and smashed them straight down, but the cross-bearing wooden beams made the shed extremely strong. In addition, the stones could not form an impact when they encountered the triangular roof, and they all fell down. Later, the Masserias used torches coated with rosin, lit them and threw them down, trying to burn the shed, but the torches fell on the shed and quickly rolled down. Those that were lucky enough to stick to it were quickly forked away by the soldiers inside.

Finally, several smart citizens, although hungry, still proposed to drive thick iron nails into the torches and let them penetrate the top of the shed, so that they could effectively stick to it and burn.

But this suggestion was too late. Bullets rained down from the "Aemilius Beast", and the defenders soon had nowhere to stay on the city wall and were completely driven away. Lepidus' subordinates in the shed began to use crowbars and torches to destroy the foundation stones of the city wall. Amid the loud noise and smoke, several sections of the Masseria wall collapsed, and the rest began to tilt and collapse.

After nightfall, Triari led his army to surround Cato's mansion, shouting and demanding that Cato surrender to the besiegers on behalf of the city.

Then, the Masseria Council of Elders also sent priests to inform Cato, and the request was the same: the city cannot be completely destroyed, and we have no intention of getting involved in the internal strife of the Republic, so we must surrender.

"Why do both the army and the citizens rush to consult my opinion, and ignore me at ordinary times? Is it just because I am a responsible person? Peace talks, of course, are no problem, this is the right of the citizens of Masseria themselves." In the courtyard, Cato, who was reading, replied very easily after hearing the report. )