Of course, the entrance to the city would be an easier approach than over the walls. The entrance, always a potential weakness in a walled city’s defense, would logically be a relatively narrow opening in the walls, typically a passage that paralleled the walls for a distance and requiring at least one turn that would further slow down an enemy rush. An attacking army storming that location would be forced into a smaller front rank and, hence, present fewer attackers, even if they could be rapidly replaced. The defenders would use their slings as soon as the attackers were within range, then the swordsmen would engage in hand-to-hand combat. The defenders would also be concentrated at the front, but those at the rear might actually get some rest. In hand-to-hand combat, fatigue was frequently a decisive factor in the battle. The attackers, in contrast, would be harried from above as well as from the front, so fewer of their troops could have a reprieve. They would be trying to defend themselves even before they were in a position to use their own weapons. The result of this rush on the entrance was “an immense slaughter.”