I tried to forget my disappointment in the local wine-shop. The tavern keeper was talkative and regaled me with the story about the siege of Ambracia by the Romans. It seems that the siege was fierce and prolonged. The Romans cut down the trees around Ambracia and build battering rams and long poles with iron sickles to demolish the battlements. The defenders let down huge masses of lead and stones and oak logs upon the rams and hauled the sickles inside the walls with iron hooks. So the Romans decided to dig an underground tunnel and to conceal their efforts, they erected a stoa parallel to the walls. But soon they had removed so much earth that their plan was revealed to the defenders.