Then they raised a mound against the wall, expecting that with
so large a force as theirs they would easily carry the place by storm.
Timber was brought from Cithaeron, and with this they set up two stout
buttresses of cross-beams, at right angles to the town-wall, to serve
as a support on either side of the mound. Within this framework they
piled up fascines, stones, earth, and whatever else was at hand. The
whole army was employed in this task, which was continued for seventy
days and nights without intermission, the men working in regular
spells.
Meanwhile the Plataeans had not been idle. First they built a wall of
bricks and timber opposite to the point where the mound was rising,
and resting on the ramparts, in order to raise the height of their
defences. The new wall was covered with hides, raw and dressed, to
protect the timber and the workmen from being injured by burning
arrows. And while this structure was in progress, they made a breach
in the old wall, and carted away the earth from the bottom of the
mound. To prevent this, the Peloponnesians filled up the space thus
caused with heavy masses of clay, rammed tightly into baskets of
osier, which made a solid structure, much harder to remove than the
loose earth. Then the Plataeans had recourse to another device:
marking carefully the position of the mound, they ran a mine from the
city under it, and as fast as the earth fell in, they carried it away.
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