The battering-ram, was used to batter down the walls of besieged cities. It consisted of a large beam, made of the trunk of a tree, especially of a fir or an ash. To one end was fastened a mass of bronze or iron, which resembled in its form the head of a ram. The upper figure in the annexed cut shows the aries in its simplest state, and as it was borne and impelled by human hands, without other assistance. In an improced form, the ram was surrounded with iron bands, to which rings were attached for the purpose of suspending it by ropes or chains from a beam fixed transversel over it. - Smith, 1873