ART 



ART 



Ik'fl precilc mention of artiilciy is in tlie fecond book of Chro- 

 nicles (chap. xxvi. v. 15.), where v.e arc told, that Uzziah, 

 who began his reigii 809 years before the Chrillian rcra, 

 " made in Jerufaltm engines invented by cunnitig men, to 

 be upon the toners and upon the bnlwarks, to flioot ar- 

 rows and great (lores withaL" Tti:s alfo is particularly 

 mentioned by Jofephus, who reprefents Uzziah's care of 

 Jerufalem as toward the end of his reign. 



The Greeks, who were dellrous of appropriating to 

 themfelves every improvement of fcicnce they gathered 

 from the Eaft, would fain have been believed the inventors 

 of artillerv. But fo far from being in pofFeffion of artil- 

 lery, they had not in their early times, if we may judge 

 from Konier's writings, one mihtar)- engine that was cal- 

 culated to fhake a wall. The earlieft inltance in profane 

 hiftory is probably to be fought for in the fiegc of Mo- 

 tya, about 370 years before Chrift, where Dionylius, hav- 

 ing battered the fortifications with his rams, advanced to 

 the walls, towers rolled upon wheels, whence he galled the 

 befieged with continual vollies of arrows and ftones thrown 

 from his catapults. ( Anc. Univ. Hilt. vol. vi. p. 401.) The 

 next memorable inllance that occurs is the fiegc of Rhodes 

 by Demetrius Poliorceces, where even Grecian ingenuity 

 was exhaufte4 in the invention and improvement of artil- 

 lery'. (Diod. Siculus, 1. XX.) Another inllance of notoriety 

 occurs when Hannibal befieged Saguntum, 219 years be- 

 fore the Chriftian sera ; and the Saguntines hindered his 

 foldiers from ufing the battering-ram. by an inceflant 

 hurling of darts, ftones, and other miffile weapons. See 

 the account in Livy (1. xxi. c. 7. edit. Freindi.), who has 

 alfo fupplied us (1. xxvi. c. 46, 47.) with a curious inven- 

 tory of the warlike engines which Scipio, eight years after- 

 wards, found among the (lores of Carthagena. There 

 were no lefs than an hundred and twenty catapults of the 

 larger fize, two h\mdred and eighty-one of the fmaller, 

 of the greater baliftx twenty-three, of the lefTer fifty-two ; 

 befide an innumerable quantity of fcorpions of different 

 Czes, arms, and mlffile weapons. Two years, however, 

 prcnous to this, Marcellus had laid fiege to Syracufe, a 

 city proverbially fatal to the armies that attacked it. Ar- 

 chimedes was at that time refident in Syracufe ; and at the 

 earnell folicitation of Hiero, king of Sicily, exerted the 

 powers of his mind in the invention of artillery and other 

 warhke engines. Mavcellus had brought with him an 

 amazing engine caWcA fariltuea, upon eight galleys ; which 

 the mathematician dellroyed by difcharging (ingle ftones of 

 enorm us weight upon it, while it was at a confiderable 

 diftance from the walls. The chief inftruments he ufed 

 were balithe, a foil of crow lowered by a lever, which 

 hoifting the (hips of the Romans bv the prow, plunged them 

 to the bottom of the fea ; grapples ; and fcorpions. Ar- 

 chimedes, however, left no account of the(e military en- 

 gines in writing ; becaufe he confidercd all attention to me- 

 chanics as mean and fordid, placing his whole delight in 

 thofe intelleclual fpeculatioiis which, without any relati(m to 

 the necefiities of life, liave an intrinfic excellence arifing from 

 truth and demonftration only ; and reckoning fuch inven- 

 tions but among the amufements of geometiy. See the 

 life of Marcellus in Plutarch. 



To multiply the enumeration of ancient ficges where ar- 

 tilleiy was ufed, would not only be tedious but endlcfs. 

 Every fiege, it is probable, gave nfe to fome invention or 

 improvement. Tacitus indeed mentions an extraordinary 

 inftancc (Hill. 1. iii. c. 23. 29.) of an engine with which 

 the fifteenth legion fought againft the troops of Vcfpafian, 

 at Cremona. It was a baliila of an enormous fize, which 

 th* VitcUians played off with dreadlul execution ; and diC- 



charged m.afTy "ftones of weight to cru(h whole ranks at 

 once. Inevitable ruin, we are told, muft have followed, if 

 two foldiers had not fignalized themfelves by a brave ex- 

 ploit. Covering themfelves with the (liields of the enemv, 

 v.hich they found among the (lain, they advanced undifco- 

 vered to the battering engine, and cut the ropes and fprinors. 

 At laft, after a vigorous aflault from Antonius, the Vitel- 

 lians being no longer able to fuftain the (hock, and enrao-ed 

 at their difappointment, in a fit of defpair, rolled down 

 their battering-engine on the heads of the befiegers. Num- 

 bers- were cru(hed by the fall of fucli a prodigious mafs. 

 It happened, however, that the machine drew after it a 

 neighbouring tower, the parapet and part of the wall, af- 

 fording the befiegers an eafier accefs to the city. The 

 continued ufe of thefe enorm.ous engines muft be remembered 

 by every reader of hiftory ; as well as that the Romans had 

 regular batteries both of balillas and catapults. 



The credit of introducing artillery into our own coivntrr 

 muft undoubtedly be given to the Noi-mans, whom William 

 of Malmfbury defcribes (1. iii. p. 57. col. 2.) as having a 

 pecuhar delight in war, and aftures us, that they excelled 

 in all the arts of attacking their enemies, when their forces 

 were fufficient. The Normans firft introduced among our 

 calUes the keep, placed upon a mount, whence they annoyed 

 the furrounding- enemy with their darts, ftones, and other 

 offenfive weapons. (Strutt's Manners and Cuftoms of the 

 Engli(h, vol. i. p. 93.) Their method of attacking caftles 

 fcems generally to have been by mere force ; blockade 

 was little pracliled ; and the iron ram, which the Ro- 

 mans found fo ferviceable, was rendered in a great meafure 

 ufelcfs by the deep ditches which funounded their foriifica- 

 t'ons. The principal machines which the Normans em- 

 ployed, were of courfe of the projectile kind ; and they 

 were not only ufed in regular fieges, but occafionally fo 

 contrived as to be ufed on (hip-board. See Matt. Paris, 

 p. 1091. 



Machines for throwing ftones occur fo early as in the 

 battle of Mailings (Will. Piclavien. p. 201.); and Robert 

 de Brunne, in his wars againft the Saracens, informs us, 

 that when Richard the Firft fet out againft the Holv Land, 

 he had in his barges and galleys mills turned by the wind 

 which by force of the fail; threw fire and ftones. 



The benefit which the Engli(h manners derived from the 

 crufades, is a topic on which we (hall have other opportuni- 

 ties of enlarging ; but the acceflions to the knowledge of 

 our anceftors in the art of war were fingulaily confpicuous. 

 Fr<.ni the Saracens they obtained a fort of wild-fire of fa 

 fubtle a compofition, that there was no method of extin- 

 gui(hing it but by fmothering it with heaps of duft or 

 vinegar. It was by this device that the Black Prince fet 

 fire to Remorentine ; and it was often thrown in pots from 

 the catapulta. 



The Greek and Roman writers affcirJ us many inftances of 

 the fuperior force which the catapults and baliftas of the 

 ancients could occafionally difplay ; nor are parallel iniiances 

 wanting in the annals of Britain. Camdai informs us, that 

 with the mangonels, trebnches, and briccolas, our forefather* 

 ufed to caft forth mill-ftones : and Holln(hed (p. 559.) re- 

 lates, that when Edward the Firft befieged Strivelv calUe, 

 he caufed certain engines of wood to be raifcd againft it, 

 which (hot off ftones of two and three hundred weight. 



The catalogue of projectile machines in the eleventh and 

 twelfth centuries, exclufive of the balifta, catapulta, onager, 

 and feorpion, were the mangonel, the trcbuchet, the pe- 

 trary, tiie robinet, the matcgrifion, the bricolk, the bugle or 

 bible, the clpringal, the m.alnfunda, the ribaudequin, engine 

 a verge, and the war-wolf (Grofe Milit, Hift. vol. i. p. 381.), 

 D 2 whofe 



