Where can I find a timeline of what happened during an ancient siege?

by Mikeci6522

Timeline of a siege

I have been desperately looking for a breakdown of what happens to a city under a long siege. I’m trying to write a novel and need to know what happens over a long period of time to an average citizen who is forced to live under siege for months at a time. In all my research I just find what kind of weaponry they use but I want to know about the effects it has from a historical perspective on the people. Thank you in advance to anyone who can help.

Hergrim

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.

For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.

Alkibiades415

I don't know of any passage which is exactly what you want, but for two famous sieges in Roman antiquity, check out Caesar's Gallic Wars Book 7. Specifically, the siege of Avaricum begins about Chapter 14 and ends Chapter 28. The famous siege of Alesia begins about Chapter 68 and ends Chapter 88, and pay special attention to Chapters 77 & 78, where cannibalism is discussed.