For the time Hannibal, when he had safely constructed his palisade, remained quiet, his plan having had the intended effect.
For he had shut up the enemy and compelled them to remain within the wall in terror for themselves as well as for the citadel,
whereas he had given such confidence to the townsmen that they considered themselves a match for the Romans even without the aid of the Carthaginians.
But later, at a slight distance behind the palisade in the direction of the town he made a trench parallel to the palisade and to the wall of the citadel.
The earth from the trench was in turn thrown up along it on the side next the town and a second palisade erected on the top, so that the protection afforded was little less effective than that of a wall.
He next prepared to construct a wall at an appropriate distance from this defence and still nearer the town reaching from the street called Saviour to the Deep Street,
so that even without being manned the fortifications in themselves were sufficient to afford security to the Tarentines.
Leaving an adequate and competent garrison for guarding the town and the wall and quartering in the neighbourhood a force of cavalry to protect them, he encamped at about forty stades from the city on the banks of the river called by some Galaesus, but most generally eurotas, after the eurotas which runs past Lacedaemon.
The Tarentines have many such names in their town and the neighbouring country, as they are acknowledged to be colonists of the Lacedaemonians and connected with them by blood.
The wall was soon completed of the zeal and energy of the Tarentines and the assistance rendered by the Carthaginians, and Hannibal next began to contemplate the captured of the citadel.
Walbank Commentary