Motya

This city, the chief stronghold of the Cart hag in i ans in Sicily, was besieged by Dionysius of Syracuse, with 83,000 men, B.C. 398. Having built a mole to connect the mainland and the island on which Motya stood, he erected thereon his new engines of war, the catapults, used for the first time in this siege. He also built large moving towers to enable him to cope with the lofty defences of the place, and by these devices succeeded in effecting an entrance. Every house, however, was in itself a small fortre , and after days of street fighting, which cost the a ailants a heavy price, the city was still unsubdued. At last by a night surprise he mastered the quarter which still held out, and the inhabitants were ma acred or sold as slaves.