content_ocr_temporal_enriched_031_6 (Q1722): Difference between revisions

Though its invention has been attributed to the Normans, others state that it was invented by the Cretans and introduced into Europe after the first Crusade. In all probability it was a modification of well-known engines of war used in besieging and defending fortified towns. These engines were often of huge proportions; one used by the fifteenth legion against Vespasian at the battle of Cremona, according to Tacitus, discharged stones large enough to crush whole ranks at once. The first mention of such machines is in 2 Chronicles (xxvi. 15), where it is stated that Uzziah “made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be upon the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones.” Josephus states that the Jews shot the corpses of men and horses from these machines—a common practice of the Carthaginians, who thought thus to strike terror into their assailants. The catapultæ were sometimes made to shoot at once a whole sheaf of arrows or a number of javelins; the balistæ were used to throw stones chiefly.