Liv. 21.8.1Obsidiō deinde per paucōs diēs magis quam oppugnātiō fuit, dum vulnus ducis cūrārētur.Then for a few days there was a blockade rather than an assault, while the general's wound was being treated. Liv. 21.8.1Per quod tempus ut quiēs certāminum erat, ita ab apparātū operum ac mūnītiōnum nihil cessātum.During this time, though there was a pause in the fighting, there was no let-up in the preparation of works and fortifications. Liv. 21.8.2Itaque ācrius dē integrō coortum est bellum, plūribusque partibus, vix accipientibus quibusdam opera locīs, vīneae coeptae agī admovērīque ariēs.And so the fighting broke out afresh more fiercely, and in more places, some of them hardly admitting works, the sheds began to be moved forward and the ram brought up. Liv. 21.8.3Abundābat multitūdine hominum Poenus;The Carthaginian had an abundance of men; Liv. 21.8.3ad centum quīnquāgintā mīlia habuisse in armīs satis crēditur;it is believed with good reason that he had as many as a hundred and fifty thousand under arms; Liv. 21.8.4oppidānī ad omnia tuenda atque obeunda, multifāriam distinērī coeptī, nōn sufficiēbant.the townspeople, now beginning to be stretched in many directions, were not enough to guard and man every point.
Liv. 21.8.5Itaque iam feriēbantur arietibus mūrī quassātaeque multae partēs erant;And so the walls were now being battered by rams, and many parts had been shaken; Liv. 21.8.5ūna continentibus ruīnīs nūdāverat urbem: trēs deinceps turrēs quantumque inter eās mūrī erat cum fragōre ingentī prōciderant.one section, by a continuous collapse, had laid the city bare: three towers in a row, and all the wall between them, had fallen with a tremendous crash. Liv. 21.8.6Captum oppidum eā ruīnā crēdiderant Poenī, quā, velut sī pariter utrōsque mūrus tēxisset, ita utrimque in pugnam prōcursum est.The Carthaginians had believed the town captured by that collapse, and through it, as if the wall had protected both sides alike, men rushed out to fight from either side. Liv. 21.8.7Nihil tumultuāriae pugnae simile erat, quālēs in oppugnātiōnibus urbium per occāsiōnem partis alterīus cōnserī solent, sed iūstae aciēs velut patentī campō inter ruīnās mūrī tēctaque urbis modicō distantia intervallō cōnstiterant.There was nothing like the disorderly fighting which usually begins in sieges of cities when one side seizes an opportunity, but regular battle lines had taken their stand, as if on open ground, between the ruins of the wall and the houses of the city, which stood a short distance away.
Liv. 21.8.8Hinc spēs, hinc dēspērātiō animōs inrītat, Poenō cēpisse iam sē urbem, sī paulum adnītātur, crēdente, Saguntīnīs prō nūdātā moenibus patriā corpora oppōnentibus nec ūllō pedem referente, nē in relictum ā sē locum hostem inmitteret.Here hope, there despair stirs their spirits, the Carthaginian believing that he had already taken the city if he made a little more effort, the Saguntines setting their bodies before their homeland now stripped of its walls, and no one stepping back, lest he should let the enemy into the place he had left. Liv. 21.8.9Itaque quō ācrius et cōnfertim magis utrimque pugnābant, eō plūrēs vulnerābantur nūllō inter arma corporaque vānō intercīdente tēlō.And so the more fiercely and the more closely they fought on both sides, the more men were wounded, since no weapon fell harmlessly between arms and bodies. Liv. 21.8.10Phalārica erat Saguntīnīs missile tēlum hastīlī abiegnō et cētera teretī praeterquam ad extrēmum, unde ferrum extābat;The Saguntines had a missile called the falarica, with a shaft of fir, round everywhere else except at the end, where the iron stuck out; Liv. 21.8.10id, sīcut in pīlō, quadrātum stuppā circumligābant linēbantque pice;this part, which was square, as on a pilum, they bound round with tow and smeared with pitch; Liv. 21.8.11ferrum autem trēs longum habēbat pedēs, ut cum armīs trānsfīgere corpus posset.the iron was three feet long, so that it could pierce a body together with its armour.
Liv. 21.8.11Sed id maximē, etiam sī haesisset in scūtō nec penetrāsset in corpus, pavōrem faciēbat, quod, cum medium accēnsum mitterētur conceptumque ipsō mōtū multō maiōrem ignem ferret, arma omittī cōgēbat nūdumque mīlitem ad īnsequentēs ictūs praebēbat.But what caused most terror, even if it had stuck in a shield and not penetrated into the body, was that, since it was thrown alight in the middle and carried a far greater flame fanned by its very motion, it forced the soldier to let go of his arms and left him exposed to the blows that followed.