A furious resistance immediately began.
Trunks of trees fastened to cables fell and rose alternately and battered the rams; cramps hurled by the ballistas tore away the roofs of the huts; and streams of flints and pebbles poured from the platforms of the towers.
At last the rams broke the gates of Khamon and Tagaste.

But the Carthaginians had piled up such an abundance of materials on the inside that the leaves did not open.

They remained standing.
Then they drove augers against the walls; these were applied to the joints of the blocks, so as to detach the latter.

The engines were better managed, the men serving them were divided into squads, and they were worked from morning till evening without interruption and with the monotonous precision of a weaver's loom.
Spendius returned to them untiringly.

It was he who stretched the skeins of the ballistas.