In attacking the walls of a tort or city, the first step appears to have been to form an inclined plane or hank of earth (comp. Ezek. iv, 2 — "cast a mount against it"). by which the besiegers could bring their battering-rams and other engines to the foot of the walls. "The bat- tering-rams," says Mr. Layard, " were of several kinds.
Some were joined to movable towers which held war- riors and armed men. The whole then formed one great temporary building, the top of which is represent- ed in sculptures as on a level with the walls, and even turrets, of the besieged city. In some bas-reliefs the battering-ram is without wheels; it was then, perhaps,
Constructed upon the spot, ami was not intended to be moved. The movable tower was probably sometimes unprovided with the ram. but I have not met with it so represented in the sculptures. , . . When the machine containing the battering-ram was a simple framework and did not form an artificial tower, a cloth or some kind of drapery, edged with fringes and otherwise or- namented, appears to have been occasionally thrown over it. Sometimes it may have been covered with hides. It moved either on four or on six wheels, and was provided with one ram or with two. The mode of working the rams cannot be determined from the Assyrian Sculptures. It may be presumed, from the
representations in the bas-reliefs, that they were partly .suspended by a rope fastened to the outside of the ma- chine, and that men directed and impelled them from within. Such was the plan adopted by 'be Egyptians, in whose paintings the warriors working the ram may 1 through the frame. Sometimes ibis engine
was ornamented by a carved or painted 6gure of the divinity kneeling on one knee and drawing a bow. The artificial tower was usually occupied by two warriors: one discharged his arrows against the
whom be was able, from his lofty position, to
harass more i fiectually than if be had been below; the other held up a shield for his companion's defence. Warriors arc not unfrequently represented as Stepping
from the machine to the battlements tamers on
the walls hurled stom a from slinks and discharged their arrows against the warriors in the artificial towers: while the rest of the besieged were no less active in en-
deavoring to frustrate the attempts of the assailants to make breaches in their walls. By dropping a double chain or rope from the battlements tiny caught the ram. ami could either destroy it> c flScacy altogethl r. or break the force of its blows. Those below, however, by placing hooks over the engine ami throwing their whole weight upon them, struggled to retain it in its place. The besieged, if unable to displace the batter- ing-ram, sought to destroy it by lire, and threw lighted torches or firebrands upon ii ; but water was poured upon the flames through pipes attached to the artificial tower" (Nineveh mid its Remains, ii. ou7-370).— Smith. See Batterwg-Ram.
Ram, Pierre Francois \ \\ n b de, a Belgian his- torian and theologian, was born at Louvain, Sept. 2, 1804, studied at Marines, and in 1823 was made profess- or in a seminary of the same place, and taught there un- til ils suppression, in 1825. lie was then made archi- vist to the archbishop of the diocese of Marines. In 1827 he took holy order-, and two years after was ap- pointed professor of ecclesiastical history and philoso- phy in the theological seminary at .Malines. of which, when (in 1834) enlarged to a university, he was made rector. In 1835 be was transferred to Louvain, and there taught until his death, in 1862. lie was a learn- ed man and greatly revered by his countrymen. His writings were very numerous. Besides his biography of the principal saints ami celebrated persons of the Low Countries — a work in which he freely used the writings of Raine — Ram published the following works of interest to us: Synodicum Belgicum, sivi Acta om- nium Ecclesiarum Belgii a Concilio Tridendno usque ad 1801 (Mai. 1828- 58)-, Historia Philosophic (Louv. is:;-.' 34,8vo); P* des Saints di Gorfescard (Louv. 1828- 35, "22 vols. 8vo, and often); Documents relatifs avx Troubles du Pays *l> Liege, sous les Princes -eveques Louis de Bourbon et Jean dt limn. [455 1585 (Brux. I844,4tp),a most important chapter from a Romanist on a noteworthy period of the ante-reformation movement in the Low Countries, etc. See Querard, J. a France Litteraire, vol. xi, for full bibliography.
Ra'ma (Tafia), the Greek form of Ramah, found in Matt. ii. 18, referring to Jer. xxxi, L5. The original passage alludes to a massacre of Benjamites or Eph- raimites (comp. vers. P. 18) at the Kaiuah in Benjamin or in Mount Ephraim. This is seized by the evan- gelist and turned into a touching reference to the slaughter of the innocents at Bethlehem, near to which was (and is) the sepulchre of Rachel. The name of Rama is alleged to have been lately discovered attached to a spot close to tb<- sepulchre. If it existed there in Matthew's day. it may have prompted bis allusion, though it is not necessary to suppose this, since the point of the quotation does not lie in the name Raman, but in the lamentation of Rachel for the children, as is shown by the change of the vioic of the original to riicva. The allusion is doubtless to Ramah, one of the leading cities of Benjamin, and not. as many have sup- posed, to some place of that name mar Bethlehem. The passage is a difficult one. but the difficulty may be solved by a careful examination of the topography of the district The difficulties are these: I. Why is Rachel, the mother of Benjamin, represented as weep- ing for her children, seeing that Bethlehem was in .hiil, ih and not in Benjamin? The reply i-. Rachel died and was buried mar Bethlehem (Gen. xxxv, 19); the border of the tribe of Benjamin r< ached to her s. p- ulchre (1 Sam. x, 2); not only were the children of Bethlehem slain, but also those "in all the coast there- of," thus including pari of Benjamin. The spirit of the departed Rachel is then represented as rising from the tomb and mourning her slaughtered children. 2. But