Readings in the Classical Historians

For a long time the outcome of this bloody fight hung in the balance. The unremitting courage of the besieged set death at defiance, and the strife had reached a stage when only some unavoidable accident could decide the issue. Suddenly our mound, on which we had spent so much labor, fell forward as if struck by an earthquake; it filled the gap which yawned between the wall and the ramp outside like a causeway or bridge, and presented the enemy with a level surface over which they could pass unhindered. Most of our men were thrown down and crushed, or gave up the struggle from exhaustion … The trenches were filled with corpses, which provided a broader front for the attack, and when the furious inrush of the enemy’s troops filled the city all hope of defense or escape was gone, and soldiers and civilians were slaughtered like sheep without distinction of sex. As it was getting dark and while a crowd of our men were still keeping up the fight, hopeless though it was, I and two others…