Eligitur abies vel ornus excelsa, cuius summitas duro ferro concluditur et prolixo, arietis efficiens prominulam speciem, quae forma huic machinamento vocabulum indidit, et sic suspensa utrimque, transversis asseribus et ferratis, quasi ex lance vinculis trabis alterius continetur, eamque quantum mensurae ratio patitur, multitudo retro repellens, rursus ad obvia quaeque rumpenda protrudit, ictibus validissimis, instar adsurgentis et cedentis arietis.
A tall fir or mountain ash is selected, to the end of which is fastened a long, hard iron; this has the appearance of a projecting rams head, and it is this shape which has given the machine its name. This is suspended between ironbound beams running across on both sides, so that it hangs from a third beam like the pan of a balance. Then a number of men, as great as the length of the pole permits, draw it back and then shove it forward again with powerful blows, just as a ram charges and retreats, to break everything in its way.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book23.json