B A T 
To wear with beating,—If you have a filver faucepan for 
■the kitchen ufe, let meadvife you to batter it well; this 
•will (hew condant good houfekeeping. Swifts —Applied 
to perfons, to wear out with fervice.—1 am a poor old 
battered fellow, and I would willingly end my days in peace. 
Arbulhnot. 
To Batter, v. n. A word ufed only by workmen.— ■ 
The fide of a wall, or any timber, that bulges from its 
bottom or foundation, is laid to batter. Moxon. 
Batter,/, A mixture of feveral ingredients beaten 
together with fome liquor; fo called from its being la 
much beaten : 
One would have all tilings little, hence has try’d 
Turkey-poults frefli from th’ egg in batter fry’d. King. 
B AT'TERER, f. He that batters. 
B AT'TERING-RAM,/. A military engine tiled for 
beating down walls before the invention of'gun-powder 
.and the modern artillery. It is (aid to have been invented 
by Artemanesof Clazomene, a Greek architect, who flotu 
rirtied 441 B. C. The machine is thus deferibed by Jofe- 
.plius: It is a vail beatn, like the mad of a fhip, drength- 
ened at the one end with a head of iron, lomething refem¬ 
bling that of a ram, whence it took its name. This engine 
did mod execution when it was mounted on wheels, which 
is faid to have been fird done at the liege of Byzantium 
tinder Philip of- Macedon. Plutarch informs us, that 
Marc Anthony, in the Parthian war, made life of a ram 
fourfeore feet long: and Vitruvius tells us, that they 
were lbmetimes 106, and fometimes 120, feet in length; 
and to this perhaps the force and drength of the engine 
was in a great meafurc owing. The ram was managed at 
one time by a whole century of foldiers; and they being 
fpent were feconded by another century, fo that it played 
continually without any intermidion. See Artillery, 
p. 231, of this volume. 
Battering-rams,/! in heraldry, a bearing or coat of 
arms refembling the military engine of the fame name. 
BATTERY,/, [from battre, or batterie, Fr.] The aft 
of battering.—Earthly minds, like mud walls, redd the 
dronged batteries. Locke .—The indruments with which a 
town is battered, placed in order for aftion ; a line of cannon. 
See, and revere th’ artillery of heav’n, 
Drawn by the gale, or by the temped driven : 
A dreadful fire the floating bati’iies make, 
O’erturn the mountain, and the fored fhake. Blackmore. 
Battery,/! in electricity, is a combination of coated 
furfaces of glal's, commonly jars, fo connected together 
that they may be charged at once, and difeharged by a 
common conductor. See Electrici ty. 
Battery,/! inlaw, is the unlawful beating or drik- 
jng of another. See Assault, p.280, of this volume. 
Battery,/ in the military art, a place railed to plant 
cannon upon, to play with more advantage upon the ene¬ 
my. It confids of an epaulment of a bread-work, of about 
eight feet high, and eighteen or twenty feet thick. In all 
batteries, the open fpaces through which the muzzles of 
the cannon are pointed, are called embrazures, and the dif- 
tances between the embrafures, merlons. The guns are 
placed upon a platform of planks, &c. afeending a little 
from the parapet, to check the recoil, and that the gun 
may be the eafier brought back again to the parapet: they 
are placed from twelve to fixteen feet difiant from one an¬ 
other, that the parapet may be drong, and the gunners 
have room to work. 
Covered or Majked Battery, is when the cannon and 
gunners are covered by a bank or bread-work, commonly 
made of bru(h-wood, faggots, and earth, called a fafeine 
battery. 
Cr/i- Batteries, are two batteries playing athwart eacli 
other upon the fame. objeCt, forming an angle there, and 
battering to more effect, becaufe what one battery (hakes, 
the other beats-down. 
Mortar BATTERiES;difter from the others, in that the 
B A T 8, r 
(Tope of the parapet is inwards, and it is without embra-- 
fures, the (hells being fired quite over the parapet, com¬ 
monly at an angle of forty-five degrees elevation. 
Open Battery, is nothing mote than a number of 
cannon, commonly field-pieces, ranged in a row abreaff of 
one another, perhaps on Lome l'mal 1 natural elevation of the 
ground, or an artificial bunk a little railed for the purpofe. 
Sunk or Buried Battery, is when its platform is Junk, 
or let down into the ground, fo that trenches muff be cut 
in the earth-oppofite the muzzles of the guns, to ferve as 
■ embrafures to fire through. This is moffly ufed on the firft 
making of approaches in belieging and battering a place. 
Battery d'Erijiladc, is one that fcours or (weeps the 
whole length of a draight line. .Battery en Eckarpe, is one 
that plays obliquely. Battery de lleverfe , or Murdering Bat¬ 
tery, is one that plays upon the enemy’s back. Camerade 
or Joint Battery, is.when feveral guns play upon one place 
at.the fame time. See Fortification. 
BATTIBA'GLIO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom 
of Naples, and Principato Citra : eleven miles ead-louth- 
ead of Salerno. 
BAT'TISH, adj. [from bat.] Refembling a bat.—To 
be out late in a battijh humour. Gentleman InftruElcd. 
BATTIS'TA (Franco), a celebrated painter, born at 
Venice, was one of the difciples of Michael Angelo, whofe 
manner he followed fo clofely, that in the correftnefs of 
his out-line he furpaffed molt of the maders of his time. 
His paintings are difperfed all over Italy and other parts 
of Europe ; but, his colouring being very dry,' they are 
not much more edeemed than the prints etched by his 
hand. He died in 1561. 
BAT'TLE,/. \_batille , Fr. The word is alfo written 
battel, battell, and battail. It is formed from the Latin 
verb batuerc, to fence or exercife with arms : whence ba- 
tualia and batdlia, which properly denoted the aftion or 
exercife of thofe who learned to fence, and who were hence 
alfo denominated batuatores. ] A fight; an encounter be¬ 
tween oppofite armies. We generally fay a battle of many, 
and a combat of two.—The race is not to the fwift, nor the 
battle to the drong. Ecclef,- —A body of forces, or divifion 
ot an army.—The king divided his army into three battles ; 
whereof the vanguard only, with wings, came to fight. 
Bacon. —The main body, as didinft from the van and rear. 
•—Angus led the avant-guard, himfelf followed with the 
battle a good didance behind, and after came the arreir. 
Hayward. —We lay to join battle ; to give battle. 
To Battle, v.n. [ battailier , Fr.] To join battle; to 
contend in light: 
’Tis ours by craft and by furprize to gain : 
’Tis yours to meet in arms, and battle in the plain. Prior. 
The ancients never joined battle without much ceremony, 
and preparation ; as taking auguries, offering Jacrifice^ 
haranguing the foldiers, giving the word or a tejjera, 8c c. 
The lignals of battle were, founding tire clajjicum or gene¬ 
ral charge, and ditplaying. a peculiar flag called by Plu¬ 
tarch a purple robe ; to which may.be added, tinging paeans, 
railing military (bouts, See. A Roman legion, ranged in 
order of battle, confided of hajlati, placed in the front; 
of principes, who were all old experienced foldiers, placed 
behind the former; and of triarii, heavy armed with large 
bucklers, behind the principes. . The hajlati were ranked 
dole ; the ranks of the principes were much opener, (0 
that they could receive the hajlati ; and thole of the triarii 
opener dill, infomuch that they could receive both the - 
principes and the hajlati within them, without any diforder, 
and dill facing the enemy. When therefore the hajlati 
found themfelves unable to dand the enemy’s charge, they 
retired gently within the principes, where joining with 
them they renewed the combat. If thele found themfelves 
too weak to fudain the enemy, both retired among the 
triarii, where rallying, they formed a new corps, and 
charged with more vigour than ever. If thefe failed, the 
battle was loll: the Romans had no farther refource. The 
moderns are unacquainted with this method of infertjpg qr 
embattling 
