PART V

_HISTORICAL NOTES ON ANCIENT AND MEDIÆVAL SIEGE ENGINES AND THEIR EFFECTS IN WARFARE_

It is evident that a history of ancient siege engines cannot be created _de novo_. All that can be done is to quote with running criticism what has already been written about them.

The first mention of balistas and catapults is to be found in the Old Testament, two allusions to these weapons being made therein.

The references are:

2 Chronicles xxvi. 15, ‘And he[20] made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal.’

[20] Uzziah.

Ezekiel xxvi. 9, ‘And he shall set engines of war against thy walls.’

Though the latter extract is not so positive in its wording as the one first given, it undoubtedly refers to engines that cast either stones or arrows against the walls, especially as the prophet previously alludes to other means of assault.

One of the most authentic descriptions of the use of great missive engines is to be found in the account by Plutarch of the siege of Syracuse by the Romans, 214–212 B.C.

Cæsar in his Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil wars, B.C. 58–50, frequently mentions the engines which accompanied him in his expeditions.

The balistas on wheels were harnessed to mules and called carro-balistas.

The carro-balista discharged its heavy arrow over the head of the animal to which the shafts of the engine were attached. Among the ancients these carro-balistas acted as field artillery and one is plainly shown in use on Trajan’s Column.

According to Vegetius, every cohort was equipped with one catapult and every century with one carro-balista; eleven soldiers being required to work the latter engine.

[Page 32]

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--THE ACTION OF THE TREBUCHET.

A. The arm pulled down and secured by the slip-hook previous to unhooking the rope of the windlass. B. The arm released from the slip-hook and casting the stone out of its sling. C. The arm at the end of its upward sweep.]

[Page 33]

Sixty carro-balistas accompanied, therefore, besides ten catapults, a legion. The catapults were drawn along with the army on great carts yoked to oxen.

In the battles and sieges sculptured on Trajan’s Column there are several figures of balistas and catapults. This splendid monument was erected in Rome, 105–113, to commemorate the victories of Trajan over the Dacians, and constitutes a pictorial record in carved stone containing some 2,500 figures of men and horses.

It is astonishing what a large number of catapults and balistas were sometimes used in a siege. For instance, at the conquest of Carthage, B.C. 146, 120 great catapults and 200 small ones were taken from the defenders, besides 33 great balistas and 52 small ones (Livy).[21]

[21] Just previous to the famous defence of Carthage, the Carthaginians surrendered to the Romans ‘two hundred thousand suits of armour and a countless number of arrows and javelins, besides catapults for shooting swift bolts and for throwing stones to the number of two thousand.’ From Appian of Alexandria, a Greek writer who flourished 98–161.

Abulfaragio (Arab historian, 1226–1286) records that at the siege of Acre in 1191, 300 catapults and balistas were employed by Richard I. and Philip II.

Abbo, a monk of Saint Germain des Prés, in his poetic but very detailed account of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885, 886, writes ‘that the besieged had a hundred catapults on the walls of the town.’[22]

[22] These were probably balistas, as Ammianus Marcellinus writes of the catapult, ‘An engine of this kind placed on a stone wall shatters whatever is beneath it, not by its weight but by the violence of its shock when discharged.’

Among our earlier English kings Edward I. was the best versed in projectile weapons large and small, including crossbows and longbows.

In the Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, an account is given of his ‘War-wolf,’ a siege engine in the construction of which he was much interested and which was no doubt a trebuchet.

This machine was of immense strength and size, and took fifty carpenters and five foremen a long time to complete. Edward designed it for the siege of Stirling, whither its parts were sent by land and by sea.

Sir Walter de Bedewyne, writing to a friend on July 20, 1304 (see Calendar of State Documents relating to Scotland), says: ‘As for news, Stirling Castle was absolutely surrendered to the King without conditions this Monday, St. Margaret’s Day, but the King wills it that none of his people enter the castle till it is struck with his “War-wolf,” and that those within the castle defend themselves from the said “War-wolf” as best they can.’

From this it is evident that Edward, having constructed his ‘War-wolf’ to cast heavy stones into the castle of Stirling to induce its garrison to surrender, was much disappointed by their capitulation before he had an opportunity of testing the power of his new weapon.

[Page 34]

One of the last occasions on which the trebuchet was used with success is described by Guillet in his ‘Life of Mahomet II.’[23] This author writes: ‘At the siege of Rhodes in 1480, the Turks set up a battery of sixteen great cannon, but the Christians successfully opposed the cannon with a counter-battery of new invention.[24]

[23] Guillet de Saint George, born about 1625, died 1705. His _Life of Mahomet II._ was published in 1681. He was the author of several other works, including one on riding, warfare and navigation, termed the _Gentleman’s Dictionary_. The best edition of this book is in English and has many very curious illustrations. It is dated 1705.

[24] Called a new invention because the old siege engine of which this one (probably a trebuchet) was a reproduction had previously been laid aside for many years.

‘An engineer, aided by the most skilful carpenters in the besieged town, made an engine that cast pieces of stone of a terrible size. The execution wrought by this engine prevented the enemy from pushing forward the work of their approaches, destroyed their breastworks, discovered their mines, and filled with carnage the troops that came within range of it.’

At the siege of Mexico by Cortes in 1521, when the ammunition for the Spanish cannon ran short, a soldier with a knowledge of engineering undertook to make a trebuchet that would cause the town to surrender. A huge engine was constructed, but on its first trial the rock with which it was charged instead of flying into the town ascended straight upwards, and falling back to its starting-point destroyed the mechanism of the machine itself.[25]

[25] _Conquest of Mexico._ W. Prescott, 1843.

Though all the projectile engines worked by cords and weights disappeared from continental warfare when cannon came to the front in a more or less improved form, they--if Vincent le Blanc is to be credited--survived in barbaric nations long after they were discarded in Europe.

This author (in his travels in Abyssinia) writes ‘that in 1576 the Negus attacked Tamar, a strong town defended by high walls, and that the besieged had engines composed of great pieces of wood which were wound up by cords and screwed wheels, and which unwound with a force that would shatter a vessel, this being the cause why the Negus did not assault the town after he had dug a trench round it.’[26]

[26] Vincent le Blanc, _Voyages aux quatre parties du monde, redigé par Bergeron_, Paris, 1649. Though the accounts given by this author of his travels are imaginative, I consider his allusion to the siege engine to be trustworthy, as he was not likely to invent so correct a description of one.

Plutarch, in his Life of Marcellus the Roman General, gives a graphic account of Archimedes and the engines this famous mathematician employed in the defence of Syracuse.

It appears that Archimedes showed his relative Hiero II., King of Syracuse, some wonderful examples of the way in which immense weights could be moved by a combination of levers.

[Page 35]

Hiero, being greatly impressed by these experiments, entreated Archimedes temporarily to employ his genius in designing articles of practical use, with the result that the scientist constructed for the king all manner of engines suitable for siege warfare.

Though Hiero did not require the machines, his reign being a peaceful one, they proved of great value shortly after his death when Syracuse was besieged by the Romans under Marcellus, 214–212 B.C.

On this occasion Archimedes directed the working of the engines he had made some years previously for Hiero.

Plutarch writes: ‘And in truth all the rest of the Syracusans were no more than the body in the batteries of Archimedes, whilst he was the informing soul. All other weapons lay idle and unemployed, his were the only offensive and defensive arms of the city.’

When the Romans appeared before Syracuse, its citizens were filled with terror, for they imagined they could not possibly defend themselves against so numerous and fierce an enemy.

But, Plutarch tells us, ‘Archimedes soon began to play his engines upon the Romans and their ships, and shot against them stones of such an enormous size and with so incredible a noise and velocity that nothing could stand before them. The stones overturned and crushed whatever came in their way, and spread terrible disorder through the Roman ranks. As for the machine which Marcellus brought upon several galleys fastened together, called _sambuca_[27] from its resemblance to the musical instrument of that name; whilst it was yet at a considerable distance, Archimedes discharged at it a stone of ten talents’ weight and, after that, a second stone and then a third one, all of which striking it with an amazing noise and force completely shattered it.[28]

[27] _Sambuca._ A stringed instrument with cords of different lengths like a harp. The machine which Marcellus brought to Syracuse was designed to lift his soldiers--in small parties at a time and in quick succession--over the battlements of the town, so that when their numbers inside it were sufficient they might open its gates to the besiegers. The soldiers were intended to be hoisted on a platform, worked up and down by ropes and winches. As the machine was likened to a harp, it is probable it had a huge curved wooden arm fixed in an erect position and of the same shape as the modern crane used for loading vessels. If the arm of the _sambuca_ had been straight like a mast, it could not have swung its load of men over a wall. Its further resemblance to a harp would be suggested by the ropes which were employed for lifting the platform to the summit of the arm, these doubtless being fixed from the top to the foot of the engine.

[28] It is, I consider, impossible that Archimedes, however marvellous the power of his engines, was able to project a stone of ten Roman talents or nearly 600 lbs. in weight, to a considerable distance! Plutarch probably refers to the talent of Sicily, which weighed about 10 lbs. A stone of ten Sicilian talents, or say 100 lbs., could have been thrown by a catapult of great strength and size.

Though the trebuchet cast stones of from 200 lbs. to 300 lbs. and more, this weapon was not invented till long after the time of Archimedes.

[Page 36]

‘Marcellus in distress drew off his galleys as fast as possible and sent orders to his land forces to retire likewise. He then called a council of war, in which it was resolved to come close up to the walls of the city the next morning before daybreak, for they argued that the engines of Archimedes, being very powerful and designed to act at a long distance, would discharge their projectiles high over their heads. But for this Archimedes had been prepared, for he had engines at his disposal which were constructed to shoot at all ranges. When, therefore, the Romans came close to the walls, undiscovered as they thought, they were assailed with showers of darts, besides huge pieces of rock which fell as it were perpendicularly upon their heads, for the engines played upon them from every quarter.

‘This obliged the Romans to retire, and when they were some way from the town Archimedes used his larger machines upon them as they retreated, which made terrible havoc among them as well as greatly damaged their shipping. Marcellus, however, derided his engineers and said, “Why do we not leave off contending with this geometrical Briareus, who sitting at ease and acting as if in jest has shamefully baffled our assaults, and in striking us with such a multitude of bolts at once exceeds even the hundred-handed giant of fable?”

‘At length the Romans were so terrified that, if they saw but a rope or a beam projecting over the walls of Syracuse, they cried out that Archimedes was levelling some machine at them and turned their backs and fled.’

As Marcellus was unable to contend with the machines directed by Archimedes and as his ships and army had suffered severely from the effects of these stone- and javelin-casting weapons, he changed his tactics and instead of besieging the town he blockaded it and finally took it by surprise.

Though, at the time of the siege of Syracuse, Archimedes gained a reputation for divine rather than human knowledge in regard to the methods he employed in the defence of the city, he left no description of his wonderful engines, for he regarded them as mere mechanical appliances which were beneath his serious attention, his life being devoted to solving abstruse questions of mathematics and geometry.

Archimedes was slain at the capture of Syracuse, B.C. 212, to the great regret of Marcellus.

The following extracts from Josephus, as translated by Whiston, enable us to form an excellent idea of the effects of great catapults in warfare:

(1) _Wars of the Jews_, Book III., Chapter VII.--The siege of Jotapata, A.D. 67. ‘Vespasian then set the engines for throwing stones and darts round about the city; the number of the engines was in all a hundred and sixty.... At the same time such engines as were intended for that purpose threw their spears buzzing forth, and stones of the weight of a talent were thrown by the engines that were prepared for doing so....

[Page 37]

‘But still Josephus and those with him, although they fell down dead one upon another by the darts and stones which the engines threw upon them, did not desert the wall.... The engines could not be seen at a great distance and so what was thrown by them was hard to be avoided; for the force with which these engines threw stones and darts made them wound several at a time, and the violence of the stones that were cast by the engines was so great that they carried away the pinnacles of the wall and broke off the corners of the towers; for no body of men could be so strong as not to be overthrown to the last rank by the largeness of the stones.... The noise of the instruments themselves was very terrible, the sound of the darts and stones that were thrown by them was so also; of the same sort was that noise that dead bodies made when they were dashed against the wall.’

(2) _Wars of the Jews_, Book V., Chapter VI.--The siege of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. ‘The engines that all the legions had ready prepared for them were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the tenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones were more forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelled the excursions of the Jews but drove those away who were upon the walls also. Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a talent[29] and were carried two or more stades.[30]

[29] 57¾ lbs. (avoirdupois).

[30] Two stades would be 404 yards; the measure of a stade is 606¾ English feet.

‘The blow they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those who stood first in the way but by those who were beyond them for a great space.

‘As for the Jews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it was of a white colour and could therefore not only be perceived by the great noise it made, but could be seen also before it came by its brightness; accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave notice when an engine was let go ... so those that were in its way stood off and threw themselves down upon the ground. But the Romans contrived how to prevent this by blacking the stone; they could then aim with success when the stone was not discerned beforehand, as it had been previously.’

The accounts given by Josephus are direct and trustworthy evidence, for the reason that this chronicler relates what he personally witnessed during the sieges he describes, in one of which (Jotapata) he acted the part of a brave and resourceful commander.

Tacitus in describing a battle fought near Cremona between the armies of Vitellius and Vespasian, A.D. 69, writes: ‘The Vitellians at this time changed the position of their battering-engines, which in the beginning were placed in different parts of the field and could only play at random against the woods and hedges that sheltered the enemy. They were now moved to the Postumian way, and thence having an open space before them could discharge their missiles with good effect.’[31]

[31] Tacitus continues: ‘The fifteenth legion had an engine of enormous size, which was played off with dreadful execution and discharged massy stones of a weight to crush whole ranks at once. Inevitable ruin must have followed if two soldiers had not signalised themselves by a brave exploit. Covering themselves with shields of the enemy which they found among the slain, they advanced undiscovered to the battering-engine and cut its ropes and springs. In this bold adventure they both perished and with them two names that deserved to be immortal.’

[Page 38]

Froissart chronicles that at the siege of Thyn-l’Evêque, 1340, in the Low Countries, ‘John, Duke of Normandy had a great abundance of engines carted from Cambrai and Douai. Among others he had six very large ones which he placed before the fortress, and which day and night cast great stones which battered in the tops and roofs of the towers and of the rooms and halls, so much so that the men who defended the place took refuge in cellars and vaults.’

Camden records that the strength of the engines employed for throwing stones was incredibly great and that with the engines called mangonels[32] they used to throw millstones. Camden adds that when King John laid siege to Bedford Castle, there were on the east side of the castle two catapults battering the old tower, as also two upon the south side besides another on the north side which beat two breaches in the walls.

[32] Catapults were often called mangons or mangonels, but in course of time the name mangonel was applied to any siege engine that projected stones or arrows. In this case the trebuchet is intended, as no catapult could project a millstone.

The same authority asserts that when Henry III. was besieging Kenilworth Castle, the garrison had engines which cast stones of an extraordinary size, and that near the castle several balls of stone sixteen inches in diameter have been found which are supposed to have been thrown by engines with slings[33] in the time of the Barons’ war.

[33] The engines here alluded to by Camden were trebuchets.

Holinshed writes that ‘when Edward I. attacked Stirling Castle, he caused an engine of wood to be set up to batter the castle which shot stones of two or three hundredweight.’ (See allusion to this, p. 33.)

Père Daniel, in his _Histoire de la Milice Françoise_, writes: ‘The great object of the French engineers was to make siege engines of sufficient strength to project stones large enough to crush in the roofs of houses and break down the walls.’ This author continues: ‘The French engineers were so successful and cast stones of such enormous size that their missiles even penetrated the vaults and floors of the most solidly built houses.’[34]

[34] These engines would also be trebuchets.

[Page 39]

The effects of the balista on the defenders of a town were in no degree inferior to those of the catapult. The missile of the balista consisted of a huge metal-tipped wooden bolt which, although of far less weight than the great ball of stone cast by a catapult or the far larger one thrown by a trebuchet, was able to penetrate roofs and cause great destruction in ranks of soldiers. Cæsar records that when his lieutenant Caius Trebonius was building a movable tower at the siege of Marseilles, the only method of protecting the workmen from the darts of engines[35] was by hanging curtains woven from cable-ropes on the three sides of the tower exposed to the besiegers.[36]

[35] Balistas.

[36] ‘For this was the only sort of defence which they had learned, by experience in other places, could not be pierced by darts or engines.’ Cæsar’s _Commentaries on the Civil War_, Book II., Chapter IX.

Procopius relates that during the siege of Rome in 537 by Vitiges King of Italy, he saw a Gothic chieftain in armour suspended to a tree which he had climbed, and to which he had been nailed by a balista bolt which had passed through his body and then penetrated into the tree behind him.

Again, at the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885–886, Abbo writes that Ebolus[37] discharged from a balista a bolt which transfixed several of the enemy.

[37] Abbot of Saint-Germain des Prés and one of the chief defenders of the town.

With grim humour Ebolus bade their comrades carry the slain to the kitchen, his suggestion being that the men impaled on the shaft of the balista resembled fowls run through with a spit previous to being roasted.

Not only were ponderous balls of stone and heavy bolts projected into a town and against its walls and their defenders, but, with a view to causing a pestilence, it was also the custom to throw in dead horses, and even the bodies of soldiers who had been killed in sorties or assaults.

For example, Varillas[38] writes that ‘at his ineffectual siege of Carolstein in 1422, Coribut caused the bodies of his soldiers whom the besieged had killed to be thrown into the town in addition to 2,000 cartloads of manure. A great number of the defenders fell victims to the fever which resulted from the stench, and the remainder were only saved from death by the skill of a rich apothecary who circulated in Carolstein remedies against the poison which infected the town.’

[38] French historian, born 1624, died 1696.

Froissart tells us that at the siege of Auberoche, an emissary who came to treat for terms was seized and shot back into the town. This author writes:

‘To make it more serious, they took the varlet and hung the letters round his neck and instantly placed him in the sling of an engine and then shot him back again into Auberoche. The varlet arrived dead before the knights who were there and who were much astonished and discomfited when they saw him arrive.’

Another historian explains that to shoot a man from the sling of an engine he must first be tied up with ropes, so as to form a round bundle like a sack of grain.

The engine with which such fiendish deeds were achieved was the trebuchet.

[Page 40]

A catapult was not powerful enough to project the body of a man. This difficulty was overcome by cutting off the head of any unfortunate emissary for peace, if the terms he brought were scornfully rejected. His letter of supplication from the besieged was then nailed to his skull, and his head was sent flying through space to fall inside the town as a ghastly form of messenger conveying a refusal to parley.

As it was always an object to the besiegers of a town to start a conflagration if they could, Greek fire was used for the purpose. The flame of this fearfully destructive liquid, the composition of which is doubtful, could not be quenched by water. It was placed in round earthenware vessels that broke on falling, and which were shot from catapults; as the roofs of ancient and mediæval dwelling-houses were usually thatched, it of course dealt destruction when it encountered such combustible material.

The successful attack or defence of a fortified town often depended on which of the armies engaged had the more powerful balistas, catapults or trebuchets, as one engine of superior range could work destruction unimpeded if it happened that a rival of similar power was not available to check its depredations.

Froissart relates that ‘at the siege of Mortagne in 1340, an engineer within the town constructed an engine to keep down the discharges of one powerful machine in the besieging lines. At the third shot he was so lucky as to break the arm of the attacking engine.’ The account of this incident, as given by Froissart, is so quaint and graphic that I quote it here: ‘The same day they of Valencens raysed on their syde a great engyn and dyd cast in stones so that it troubled sore them within the town. Thus y^e first^e day passed and the night in assayling and devysing how they might greve them in the fortress.

‘Within Mortagne there was a connying maister in making of engyns who saw well how the engyn of Valencens did greatly greve them: he raysed an engyn in y^e castle, the which was not very great but he trymmed it to a point,[39] and he cast therwith but three tymes. The firste stone fell a xii[40] fro the engyn without, the second fell on y^e engyn, and the thirde stone hit so true that it brake clene asonder the shaft of the engyn without; then the soldyers of Mortagne made a great shout, so that the Hainaulters could get nothing ther[41]; then the erle[42] sayd how he wolde withdrawe.’

[39] _i.e._ with great exactness or ‘to a hair.’

[40] A foot.

[41] Could not throw any more stones.

[42] Count of Hainault. He was besieging Tournay, but left that place and went to besiege Mortagne and ordered the people of Valenciennes to go with him.

(From the translation made at the request of Henry VIII. by John Bourchier, second Lord Berners, published 1523–1525.)

[Page 41]

These siege engines when only of moderate size were not always successful, as in some cases the walls of a town were so massively built that the projectiles of the enemy made little impression upon them. Froissart tells us that it was then the habit of the defenders of the walls to pull off their caps, or produce cloths, and derisively dust the masonry when it was struck by stones.

_Some of the historians, mechanicians and artists from whom information on balistas, catapults and trebuchets may be derived, are as follows. I name them alphabetically irrespective of their periods:_

ABBO: A monk of Saint-Germain des Prés, born about the middle of the ninth century, died in 923. He wrote a poem in Latin describing the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885–886.

AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS: Military historian. Died shortly after 390. His work first printed at Rome 1474. The latest edition is that of V. Gardthausen, 1874–1875.

APPIAN: Historian. Lived at Rome during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, 98–161. The best edition of his History is that of Schweighaeuser, 1785.

APOLLODORUS OF DAMASCUS: Built Trajan’s Column, 105–113. Architect and engineer. Addressed a series of letters to the Emperor Trajan on siege engines (_vide_ Thévenot).

ATHENÆUS: Lived in the time of Archimedes, B.C. 287–212. The author of a treatise on warlike engines (_vide_ Thévenot).

BITON: Flourished about 250 B.C. Wrote a treatise on siege engines for throwing stones (_vide_ Thévenot).

BLONDEL, FRANÇOIS: French engineer and architect; born 1617; died 1686.

CÆSAR, JULIUS (the Dictator): Born B.C. 100; died B.C. 44. Author of the ‘Commentaries’ on the Gallic and Civil wars.

CAMDEN, WILLIAM: Born 1551; died 1623. Antiquary. Published his ‘Britannia’ 1586–1607.

COLONNA, EGIDIO: Died 1316. Archbishop of Bourges 1294, after having been tutor to Philip the Fair of France. His best known works are ‘Quæstiones Metaphysicales’ and ‘De Regimine Principum’; the latter was written about 1280. Colonna gives a description of the siege engines of his time.

DANIEL, PÈRE GABRIEL: Historian. Born 1649; died 1728.

[Page 42]

DIODORUS (The Sicilian): Historian. Lived under Julius and Augustus Cæsar (Augustus died A.D. 14). The best modern edition is that edited by L. Dindorf, 1828.

FABRETTI, RAFFAEL: Antiquary. Born 1618; died 1700.

FROISSART, JEAN: French chronicler. Born about 1337; died 1410. His Chronicles printed about 1500. Translated into English by Lord Berners, and published 1523–1525.

GROSE, FRANCIS: Military historian and antiquary. Born about 1731; died 1791. Published ‘Military Antiquities’ 1786–1788.

HERON OF ALEXANDRIA: Mechanician. Lived B.C. 284–221. Bernardino Baldi edited his work on arrows and siege engines, 1616 (_vide_ Thévenot).

ISIDORUS, BISHOP OF SEVILLE: Historian. Died 636.

JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS: Jewish historian. Born A.D. 37; died about the year 100. Wrote the ‘History of the Jewish Wars’ and also ‘Jewish Antiquities.’ Josephus, acting as commander of the besieged, bravely defended Jotapata, A.D. 67, against the Roman general Vespasian. He was also present with the Roman army during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70.

LEONARDO DA VINCI: Italian painter. Born 1445; died 1520. In the immense volume of sketches and MSS. by this famous artist, which is preserved at Milan and entitled ‘Il Codice Atlantico,’ there are several drawings of siege engines.

LIPSIUS, JUSTUS: Historian. Born 1547; died 1606.

MÉZERAY, FRANÇOIS E. DE: French historian. Born 1610; died 1683. Published ‘Histoire de France,’ 1643–1651.

NAPOLEON III.: ‘Etudes sur l’artillerie,’ compiled by order of the Emperor and containing many drawings of the full-sized models of siege engines made by his orders, with interesting and scientific criticism of their power and effect.

PHILO OF BYZANTIUM: A writer on and inventor of warlike and other engines. Lived shortly after the time of Archimedes (Archimedes died 212 B.C.): was a contemporary of Ctesibius, who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Physcon, B.C. 170–117 (_vide_ Thévenot).

PLUTARCH: Biographer and historian. Time of birth and death unknown. He was a young man in A.D. 66.

POLYBIUS: Military historian. Born about B.C. 204. His History commences B.C. 220 and concludes B.C. 146. The most interesting edition is the one translated into French by Vincent Thuillier with a commentary by de Folard, 1727–1730.

PROCOPIUS: Byzantine historian. Born about 500; died 565. The best edition is that of L. Dindorf, 1833–1838.

[Page 44]

RAMELLI, AGOSTINO: Italian engineer. Born about 1531; died 1590. Published a work on projectile and other engines, 1588.

TACITUS, CORNELIUS: Roman historian. Born about A.D. 61.

THÉVENOT, MELCHISEDECH, 1620–1692: Edited a book called ‘Mathematici Veteres,’ containing several treatises on the siege operations of the ancients, including the construction and management of their projectile engines. In this book are to be found the writings on the subject of military engines that were compiled by Athenæus, Apollodorus, Biton, Heron and Philo. Thévenot was King’s librarian to Louis XIV. After his death the manuscript of ‘Mathematici Veteres,’ or ‘The Ancient Mathematicians,’ was revised and published by La Hire in 1693. The book was again edited by Boivin, an official in the King’s library, who lived 1663–1726. The treatises contained in Thévenot were finally re-edited and published by C. Wescher, Paris, 1869.

VALTURIUS, ROBERTUS: Military author. Living at the end of the fifteenth century. His book ‘De Re Militari’ first printed at Verona, 1472.

VEGETIUS, FLAVIUS RENATUS: Roman military writer. Flourished in the time of the Emperor Valentinian II., 375–392. The best edition is that of Schwebel, 1767.

VIOLLET-LE-DUC: French military historian. Published his ‘Dictionnaire raisonné de l’Architecture,’ 1861.

VITRUVIUS POLLIO: Architect and military engineer and inspector of military engines under the Emperor Augustus. Born between B.C. 85 and 75. His tenth book treats of siege engines. Translated into French with commentary by Perrault, 1673. The most interesting editions of Vitruvius are those containing the commentary on siege engines by Philander. The best of these is dated 1649.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--THE CAPTURE OF A FORTRESS.

_Criticism._--A fortification being entered by the besiegers, who have made a breach in the outside wall with a battering ram.

A catapult is in the left corner of the picture, and four men are taking a balista up the approach to the gateway.

_From Polybius. Edition 1727._ ]

[Page 101]

A TREATISE ON THE CONSTRUCTION, POWER AND MANAGEMENT OF TURKISH AND OTHER ORIENTAL BOWS OF MEDIÆVAL AND LATER TIMES

CONTENTS

PART PAGE I. THE TURKISH BOW. CONSTRUCTION AND DIMENSIONS 103

II. THE BOW-STRING 106

III. THE ARROW 107

IV. THE METHOD OF STRINGING A TURKISH, PERSIAN, OR INDIAN BOW 109

V. THE HORN GROOVE 111

VI. THE THUMB-RING 112

VII. THE RANGE OF THE TURKISH BOW 119

[Page 102]

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--TURKISH REFLEX COMPOSITE BOW, UNSTRUNG AND STRUNG, AND ITS FLIGHT ARROW.]

[Page 103]