Histories

Now when the Persians that Aryandes sent from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt to avenge Pheretime came to +Al Marj [20.833,32.5] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, Africa Barce,[*](The story broken off in Hdt. 4.167 is resumed.) they laid siege to the city, demanding the surrender of those who were guilty of the murder of Arcesilaus: but the Barcaeans, whose whole people were accessory to the deed, would not yield.

The Persians besieged +Al Marj [20.833,32.5] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, Africa Barce for nine months, digging underground passages leading to the walls, and making violent assaults. As for the tunnels, a blacksmith discovered them by the means of a bronze shield, and this is how he found them: carrying the shield around the inner side of the walls, he struck it against the ground of the city;

all the other places which he struck returned a dull sound; but where there were tunnels, the bronze of the shield rang clear. Here the Barcaeans made a counter-tunnel and killed those Persians who were digging underground. Thus the tunnels were discovered, and the assaults were repelled by the townsfolk.

When much time had been spent and many on both sides (not less of the Persians than of their enemies) slain, Amasis the general of the foot soldiers devised a plot, knowing that +Al Marj [20.833,32.5] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, Africa Barce could not be taken by force but might be taken by guile: he dug by night a wide trench and laid frail planks across it, which he then covered over with a layer of earth level with the ground about it.