HISTORY OF THE CROSSBOW— WILBUR 431 



trigger. In each of the two side partitions is a thick skein of 

 human hair or animal sinew fastened vertically through holes in 

 the top and bottom of the frame. A crank above the left skein twists 

 it counterclockwise; another above the right, clockwise. Fixed into 

 each skein are half bowstaves which, because of the force of torsion, 

 stick out at right angles. A bowstring is fastened from the outward 

 end of the left bow-arm to the outward end of the right, and when 

 this string is drawn back by means of winches to the string-catch 

 on the stock, the engine resembles a huge drawn crossbow. Because 

 of the combination of torsion in the skeins and tension in the arms 

 it is much more powerful.* 



The catapult or ballista, unlike the crossbow which was manipu- 

 lated by one man only, was a piece of artillery operated by a crew. 

 These machines stand in relation to the crossbow somewhat as the 

 cannon stands to the hand gun, itself developed later than the can- 

 non. But the functional and chronological relationship between the 

 crossbow and these siege engines is not clear : the crossbow may have 

 preceded and suggested them ; it may have developed in the classical 

 w^orld from them ; or, it may have no fundamental relation whatever 

 to them, possibly having been introduced from some other region, 

 such as China. 



The arrow firing catapult is said to have been invented in Syra- 

 cuse and first used in war by Dionysius I of Syracuse against Car- 

 thage in 397 B. C.^ A catapult arrow was exhibited as a curiosity 

 in Sparta in 370 B. C, and an iiiscription mentions two catapults 

 at Athens about 358-354. In 341 B. C. they were used extensively 

 in the siege of Byzantium both by Philip of Macedon and by the 

 defenders. Alexander the Great promoted the use of all kinds of 

 siege engines. His engineers developed especially torsion catapults, 

 which he took with him on his campaigns all over western Asia 

 and as far east as the Juxartes River. From his time on they were 

 used in nearly every important siege even down to fairly recent 

 times. 



* Reconstructed specimens of these machines are illustrated in the articles by Gohlke, 

 Payne-Gallwey, and Schramm. Ancient representations of the actual machines may be 

 seen on a Roman tombstone, dating around 77 A. D., figured in Jones, Companion to Roman 

 history, pi. 38 ; and on the column of Trajan, built 105-113 A. D. Cf. Froehner, Wllhelm, 

 La Colonne Trajane, pi. 90 and detail pi. XVII. Paris, Rothschild, 1872-74. In the.se 

 bas-reliefs the details, naturally, are not very clear. Both Schramm and Payne-Gallwey 

 actually made models to test out the literary accounts of antiquity. 



* An excellent account of the history of catapults is found in a work by the leading 

 English authority on the Hellenistic period : Tarn, W. W., Hellenistic military and naval 

 developments, p. 103 ff., and I have followed him in this paragraph. Other good accounts 

 are in Jones, op. cit., pp. 215-223 ; Payne-Gallwey (both works) ; and Schramm, E., 

 Poliorketik. This latter is essential as it assembles the available historical references 

 In Greek. 



