1908] on Ancient and Mediceval Weapons. 331 



that it enables the soldier to discharge his missiles automatically and 

 with great rapidity, one after the other, in the manner of a modern 

 repeating rifle. These weapons have, however, no real power, as their 

 bows are of wood, and they are not worthy of further description. 



Peojectile Siege Engines. 



I will now give a short description of the great projectile engines 

 that were employed for battering fortifications and slaying their 

 defenders, and which were, of course, also used by the besieged 

 as a means of repelling the enemy. These engines are of great 

 antiquity, and are first mentioned in Chronicles, wherein we read 

 " that Uzziah made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men, 

 to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and 

 great stones." I can find no earlier literary reference to weapons of 

 this kind. 



It is possible that the Assyrians first constructed them, as in 

 some of the sculptures from Nimrud a primitive form of engine is 

 represented in the act of throwing large stones, which are plainly 

 indicated as if in transit through the air. 



It was not, however, till the reign of Philip of Macedon, and that 

 of his son, Alexander the Great, that the perfecting of projectile 

 engines was carefully attended to, and their value in warfare fully 

 recognised. 



We have many detailed and graphic accounts of these engines in 

 sieges. For instance, at the siege of Syracuse, 214 to 212 B.C., that 

 great mechanical and mathematical genius, Archimedes, first con- 

 structed and then directed the manipulation of engines to repel the 

 Romans. He discharged stones against the enemy, so Plutarch tells 

 us, of such enormous size, and with such incredil)le force and velocity, 

 that nothing could withstand them, neither ships nor men. 



So eifective were the engines employed by Archimedes, that the 

 Romans ignominiously retired to a safe distance, from which they 

 then blockaded the city, to finally capture it by surprise. 



Again, Josephus, in his " Wars of the Jews," gives us an excellent 

 account of the effects of siege engines. This author wTites that at 

 the siege of Jotapata, a.d. 67, Vespasian positioned his engines to the 

 number of a hundred and sixty round the city, and that they con- 

 tinuously cast into it, by day and by night, stones of the weight of a 

 talent. 



A talent is 58 lb. 



At the siege of Jerusalem, Josephus informs us that the stones 

 cast by the besiegers were also of the weight of a talent, and were 

 projected for two or more stades, two stades being equal to 404 

 English yards. 



Descriptions of these engines and of the slaughter they caused, 

 as well as destruction to buildings, are to be found in the writings 



