History of Armenia, by Father Michael Chamich; from B. C. 2247 to ...

HISTORY OF ARMENIA.
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called asses, built in the form of chests,
with covers of extraordinary thickness, drawn
by three persons, and used in the following
way.
They were brought close under the walls,
and, from their peculiar construction, there was
a sufficient empty space beneath them to hold
several men, who, secured from harm by the
cover above, could undermine the battlements
at their ease.
When many of these are joined
together they afford shelter and protection to a
body of men, whose operations rarely fail m
destroymgthestrongestfortifications. The Greek
prisoners having drawn forward these formidable
engines, or moveable batteries, if we may so call
them, with their instruments commenced undermhiing
the walls of Tigranakert. Great,
however, was the labour required to move the
tremendous foundation stones, laid there by
Tigranes the Great. When the Armenians
?aw these operations from the battlements,
they divided their forces into parts ;
one of
which was employed in galling the Persians
with their arrows, the other in annoying the
miners below, by rolling stones down upon
them. But the latter were in perfect security
from the bulwark their machines afforded them
above, the stones making no impression upon
them. Shapuh, observing that already one side
of the battlement was shaking, and the other sides
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