Res Gestae

And again and again they earnestly demanded an interview with Ormizda, as a fellow countryman and of royal rank, but when he came near they assailed him with insults and abuse, as a traitor and a deserter. This tedious raillery used up the greater part of the day, but in the first stillness of night many kinds of siege-engines were brought to bear and

When the defenders, who were watching intently, made this out by the still uncertain light, and besides, that a mighty blow of the ram had breached a corner tower, they abandoned the double walls of the city and took possession of the citadel connected with them, which stood on a precipitous plateau at the top of a rough mountain. The middle of this mountain rose to a lofty height, and its rounded circuit had the form of an Argolic shield,[*](This was round and of large size.) except that on the north side, where its roundness was broken, cliffs which descended into the current of the Euphrates still more strongly protected it. On this stronghold, battlements of walls rose high, and were built of bitumen and baked brick, a kind of structure (as is well known) than which nothing is safer.