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5The towers should be made either round or polygonal. A square is a bad form, on account of its being easily fractured at the quoins by the battering-ram; whereas the circular tower has this advantage, that, when battered, the pieces of masonry whereof it is composed being cuneiform, they cannot be driven in towards their centre without displacing the whole mass. Nothing tends more to the security of walls and towers, than backing them with walls or terraces: it counteracts the effects of rams as well as of undermining.
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