The immense machines, of astonishing force, which the ancients adapted
to the purposes of war, prove their amazing proficiency in mechanics. It
is difficult to conceive how they reared their bulky moving towers: some
of them were a hundred and fifty-two feet in height, and sixty in
compass, ascending by many stories, having at bottom a battering ram, of
strength sufficient to beat down walls; in the middle, a drawbridge, to
be let down upon the wall of the city attacked, afforded easy passage
into the town for the assailants; and at top a body of men, placed above
the besieged, harassed them without risk to themselves. An engineer at
Alexandria, defending that city against the army of Julius Cæsar, by
means of wheels, pumps, and other machinery, drew from the sea
prodigious quantities of water, and discharged it upon the adverse army
to their extreme discomfiture.
The mechanical enterprise and skill of the ancients are evidenced by
their vast pyramids existing in Egypt, and the magnificent ruins of the
cities of Palmyra and Balbec. Italy is filled with monuments of the
greatness of ancient Rome.