Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Helepolis

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

HELEP'OLIS (ἑλέπολις). Literally, the destroyer of cities, the name given to an engine invented by Demetrius Poliorcetes for besieging fortified places, consisting of a square tower placed upon wheels, and run up to the height of nine stories, each of which was furnished with machines for battering and discharging projectiles of enormous size and weight. Diod. Sic. xx. 48. xx. 91. Vitruv. x. 22. Ammian. xxiii. 4. 10.