But if any one is apprehensive of that which is said to be a source of terror to those invading a city—namely, that the people may go up on the house-tops and hurl down missiles right and left, you need not be in the least afraid of that; for if any do go up upon their houses, we have a god on our side, Hephaestus. And their porticoes are very inflammable, for the doors are made of palm-wood and covered with bituminous varnish which will burn like tinder;
Cyropaedia. Xenophon. Walter Miller (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1914.
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