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when, also, they perceived the enemy was determined to 
invest them, and the machine approaching to assault the 
city, fearing the miseries of slavery and the sacking of 
the city, they humbled themselves before Diognetus, and 
requested his aid in behalf of his country. He at first 
refused to listen to their entreaties; but when afterwards 
the comely virgins and youths, accompanied by the 
priests, came to solicit his aid, he consented, on condition 
that if he succeeded in taking the machine, it should be 
his own property. This being agreed to, he ordered a 
hole to be made in that part of the wall opposite to the 
machine, and gave general as well as particular notices 
to the inhabitants, to throw on the other side of the hole, 
through channels made for the purpose, all the water, 
filth, and mud, that could be procured. These being, 
during the night, discharged through the hole in great 
abundance, on the following day, when the helepolis was 
advanced towards the wall, it sunk in the quagmire thus 
created: and Demetrius, finding himself overreached by 
the sagacity of Diognetus, drew off his army. The Rho¬ 
dians, freed from war by the ingenuity of Diognetus, 
gave him thanks publicly, and loaded him with honours 
and ornaments of distinction. Diognetus afterwards re- 
moved the helepolis within the walls, placed it in a pub¬ 
lic situation, and inscribed it thus: * DIOGNETUS PRE¬ 
SENTED THIS TO THE PEOPLE OUT OF THE SPOILS OF WAR. 
Hence, in defensive operations, ingenuity is of more 
avail than machines. A similar circumstance occurred 
at Chios, where the enemy had got ready sambucæ on 
board their ships; the Chians, during the night, threw 
into the sea, at the foot of their wall, earth, sand, and 
stones; so that when the enemy, on the following day,