MILITARY PROJECTILES. 531 



covert of the walls; so that the Romans, being infinitely 

 distressed by an invisible enemy, seemed to fight against 

 the gods. 



' Marcellus, however, got off, and laughed at his own 

 artillery men and engineers. " Why do we not leave off 

 contending," said he, u with this mathematical Briareus, 

 who sitting on the shore, and acting as it were but in 

 jest, has shamefully baffled our naval assault; and, in 

 striking us with such a multitude of bolts at once, exceeds 

 even the hundred giants in the fable'?" And, in truth 

 all the rest of the Syracusans were no more than the 

 body in the batteries of Archimedes, while he himself 

 was the informing soul. All other weapons lay idle and 

 unemployed ; his were the only offensive and defensive 

 arms of the city. At last the Romans were so terrifi- 

 ed, that if they saw but a rope or stick put over the walls, 

 they cried out that Archimedes was levelling some ma- 

 chine at them, and turned their backs and fled. Mar- 

 cellus, seeing this, gave up all thoughts of proceeding by 

 assault, and leaving the matter to time, turned the siege 

 into a blockade.' 



Such is Plutarch's account. The reader may perhaps 

 look a little incredulous at the idea of ships being hook- 

 ed up into the air, and whirled round against rocks 

 and walls till they are dashed to pieces and even at 

 some other parts of this account. But, however, exag- 

 gerated it may be in its details, there is no question that 

 Archimedes brought on this occasion an immense me- 

 chanical power to bear on the work of projecting 

 missiles. 



The invention of gunpowder, however at length, sup- 

 plied a new and a tremendous power, which with the 

 rapid and decisive agency which is so characteristic of 

 all its effects, has banished every other mode of pro- 

 jection from the field and from the fortress. We shall 

 make no delay in examining the questions which involve 

 its early history in obscurity, nor even stop to consid- 

 er who is to receive the honor of its first composition. 

 Very soon after its introduction as a means of war, the 

 nations of Europe who attempted to employ it, vied with 

 each other in the magnitude of the pieces of artillery 



