§1. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 7, enumerates two kinds of siege:
“There are,” he says, “many kinds of defenses and attacks, which we shall insert in their appropriate places. At present it must be known that there are two kinds of siege. One is when the adversary, after arranging garrisons in advantageous places, attacks the besieged with continual assaults. The other is when he either prevents those enclosed from obtaining water, or expects their surrender from hunger after he has barred every supply-route. For by this plan he himself, idle and safe, wears out the enemy. Against these eventualities the possessors, even if alarmed by only a slight suspicion, ought most diligently to gather every supply of food within the walls, so that substance may abound for them while scarcity compels their adversaries to depart.
“Not only pork, but also every kind of animal which cannot be kept alive while enclosed ought to be allocated for salting, so that grain may suffice with the assistance of meat. Farmyard birds, however, are nourished in cities without expense and are necessary for the sick. Fodder must especially be gathered for horses; and what cannot be carried in must be burned. Supplies of wine, vinegar, other produce, and fruits must be gathered, and nothing that may be of use must be left to the enemy. For consideration of both utility and pleasure urges that the cultivation of gardens be practiced in the pleasure-grounds or courtyards of houses.
“Yet it profits little to have collected a very great quantity unless, from the beginning, its distribution is moderated by suitable stewards according to a wholesome measure. Those who began to preserve frugality amid abundance have never been endangered by hunger. An age and sex unfit for war have also frequently been shut outside the gates because of the necessity of subsistence, lest scarcity oppress the armed men by whom the walls were being defended.”
Speed also is useful for everything. Because in cities, however strong they may be, there are usually more inhabitants than are occupied on watch, they must leave no stone unturned, construct great new works, and prepare everything. Let no age and no sex be exempted from labor.
In the Epirote war the Spartan women refused to depart from their men, but said that it was honorable for Spartan women to live or die with their men. Accordingly, they dug trenches, tended the wounded, and furnished every service to those fighting.
§2. When a city is being attacked, the first assaults must be resisted, for in this way courage readily increases in the besieged. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 12.
The besieged now have need of many things: gunpowder and the other things pertaining to artillery, of which I have spoken elsewhere.
§3. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 8, advises what must be prepared by the besieged:
“It is fitting to prepare bitumen, sulfur, liquid pitch, and the oil which they call incendiary, in order to burn the enemy’s machines. Iron of both tempers and charcoal are stored in repositories for making weapons. Wood needed for spear-shafts and arrows is likewise laid away. Round stones from rivers, because they are heavier on account of their solidity and more suitable for those casting them, are most diligently collected; with these the walls and towers are filled. The smallest are to be cast by slings or staff-slings or by hand. The larger are directed by onagers. The largest, however, of weight and a rolling shape, are arranged on the battlements so that, when released down a slope, they may not only crush those coming up but also shatter their machinery.
“Very large wheels are also fashioned from green wood; or sections cut from the strongest trees—called rollers—are smoothed so that they may roll. Rolling down an incline with sudden force, these strike down fighting men and are accustomed to terrify horses. Beams also, floorboards, and iron nails of different sizes ought to be ready at hand. For it is customary to oppose the machines of those attacking by means of other machines, especially when height must be added to the walls or bastions by sudden works, lest the adversaries’ movable towers rise above them and take the city.”
§4. Cities can be saved especially by opportune sallies. Since these cannot be made with equal forces, they must be assisted by art; for the besieged are generally inferior either in number or in strength. Therefore, when they are about to make a sally, they must act so that they appear least likely to do so. When the Romans held Palermo, they displayed only a few defenders upon the walls and cut down Hasdrubal when he incautiously approached. By the same device the people of Asculum routed Pompey, and the Numantines routed Popillius Laenas. The people of Apollonia, when besieged by Philip, king of the Macedonians, admitted a Roman garrison by night and rested throughout the following day; then at night they came suddenly upon the enemy when he felt secure. Livy, book 33.
§5. It was also customary in ancient times to place hanging portcullises before gates. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 4:
“Care is taken, moreover, lest the gates be burned by fires placed beneath them; for this reason they must be covered with hides and iron. But what antiquity invented is of greater benefit: a defensive work is added before the gate, at whose entrance a portcullis is placed, hanging from iron rings and ropes, so that, if the enemy should enter, it may be let down and those enclosed may be destroyed. The wall above the gate, however, must be arranged to receive openings through which water poured from the upper part may extinguish the fire placed beneath.”
Livy, on the people of Salapia:
“The gate had been closed by the fall of the portcullis. Some raised it with levers; others drew it up with ropes to such a height that they could pass beneath it upright. The way was scarcely open enough when the deserters rushed competitively through the gate; and when nearly six hundred had entered, the rope from which the portcullis was suspended was released and it fell with a great noise. Some of the Salapians attacked the deserters, who were carrying their arms carelessly on their shoulders after their journey as though among peaceful men; others from the towers of the gate and from the walls kept the enemy away with stones, stakes, and javelins.”
The besieged can easily be liberated in any place if at first they remain quiet and then burst out with sudden boldness. The consul Furius, when at first he was besieged and was thought to be afraid, burst out by the rear gate and cut down the incautious enemy. Livy, book 3. Caesar also, in book 5 of The Gallic War, when he was so thoroughly despised that they began to tear apart the rampart by hand and fill the trenches, sent out infantry and cavalry from every gate and put the enemy to flight. Indutiomarus was thus routed by Labienus, and so too were the Pompeians in Africa. Marius also endured the insolence of the Cimbri for a long time until he accustomed his soldiers not to fear them.
Even when the wall has been breached, its defense is nonetheless easy, provided only that courage is present. They defend themselves in many ways, especially with weapons; therefore, when the defenders are brave, it is a small thing to have opened a doorway if it is barred with steel. Sometimes they suddenly block the openings with sacks filled with wool, barrels filled with earth or dung, beams, chests, baskets filled with earth, and iron stakes, with wet straw and earth placed around them. They throw down bundles of brushwood and set them on fire; they scatter caltrops and, in place of caltrops, planks filled with nails upon which the attackers may impale themselves; they send down a rotating machine and draw it back; sometimes they raise portcullises. It is best to dig close behind the breach, so that men cannot descend from the wall into the city, and to build defensive works at the sides of the demolished wall. Everything, however, must be prepared before the attack so that it may be at hand amid the utmost haste. They also throw stones and fiery materials of every kind, in which task women and boys can be of assistance.
When Conon was besieged, he sent two cutters which kept different courses; in the evening, after most of the enemy had approached the shore, they escaped.
When Hippodamas, while besieged, could not admit a messenger, he shouted to the man standing outside that the woman bound in the temple of Athena Chalcioecus was troubling him. That woman was an image of Hunger. Although the enemy heard, they did not understand the matter.
A prostitute informed Diognetus of Naxos after obtaining permission to send something to her brothers, the sellers of sweetmeats. She placed a lead tablet in a cake, upon which it was written that they should attack the Milesians by night when they were buried in wine. She had instructed the messenger, moreover, to tell her brothers to eat the cake themselves.
When the Spartan harmost had provisions for two days, a herald sent from Sparta was ordered to say, in the presence of the Athenians conducting the siege, what instructions he had. He said: “The ephors order you to be of good courage; assistance will come.” The harmost replied: “Do not hurry; we have provisions for five months.” Deceived by this falsehood, the Athenians raised the siege because winter was approaching. Polyaenus, book 2.
§6. No less ingenuity is required in displaying an abundance of supplies, lest the enemy hope that the city will be taken by hunger. The Athenians and Romans scattered wheat. When Hannibal had plowed up the place near Casilinum so that they could not gather herbs, the people of Casilinum cast seed upon it, so that they might appear to have grain until the harvest. The survivors of Varus led captives around their granaries for the whole night.
When the people of Segeberg were besieged by Waldemar and lacked grain, they nevertheless roughened and turned millstones so that the enemy might think that they abounded in it.
In the year 1535 the people of Münster, lest they appear to be deprived of food, began to plow the suburban field as though intending to endure the siege until the harvest. Others ordered empty granaries to be closely guarded.
Lucius Antonius acted more cruelly, for he filled the prisons with slaves and destroyed them by hunger because he was unwilling to expend food upon them or to release them; and that is the Perusine famine.
Francesco Barbaro held Brescia until the siege of the Visconti was raised, because, by bringing in mules laden with sand, he furnished the appearance that grain had been brought in and thus gave courage to the multitude.
§7. Many have endured hunger for a very long time. In famine the people of Petelia cast out their parents and children; they sustained life with hides, leaves, and every kind of animal. The people of Casilinum did the same, as did the Numantines. But stronger were the people of Cyzicus, who could not be driven to surrender by the death of their captives, nor could the people of Aegina, who preferred to behold the punishment of their hostages rather than desert the Romans. Caesar used to say that his plan was the same as that of physicians: to conquer by hunger rather than by the sword.
§8. They contrived to bring in supplies by various devices. At Casilinum the Romans first sent casks filled with flour down the Volturnus; then, after the casks had been caught by a chain, they scattered nuts upon the river. Hirtius sent livestock downstream to the people of Mutina.
There was a pleasing spectacle in bringing pigs into a city. When the besieged could not bring a drove of pigs into the city, they seized one and ran ahead with it; at its grunting the whole herd followed at a rush.