Early Greek Catapults and ‘First-Generation Artillery Towers’

Article Authentication required
Subscibe in publisher´s online store Share via email
Early Greek Catapults and ‘First-Generation Artillery Towers’
Lucas, Thierry

From the journal Historia Historia, Volume 71, June 2022, issue 2

Published by Franz Steiner Verlag

article, 12541 Words
Original language: English
Historia 2022, pp 130-149
https://doi.org/10.25162/historia-2022-0005

Abstract Related content References

Abstract

This article is intended to offer a discussion on the origins of the catapult in the Greek world. The discussion focusses on one problematic point, non-torsion artillery and its distribution. There are good reasons to think that such early catapults remained a kind of experimental weapon; it is only after the invention of torsion artillery, i. e. after the middle of the fourth century BC, that the catapult became a common weapon, widespread throughout the Greek world. As a result, the study calls into question the typology of artillery towers defined by Ober and its chronological implications.

Author information

Thierry Lucas

Keywords

Ancient artillery | Athenian epigraphy | Catapults | Biton | Greek fortifications | Towers

Related content

References

  • 1. Balfour, H. 1921. “The Archer’s Bow in the Homeric Poems”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 51: 289-309.
  • 2. Campbell, D. B. 2003. Greek and Roman Artillery. 399 BC - AD 363. Oxford.
  • 3. Campbell, D. B. 2008. “Review of The Catapult: A History, by T. Rihll”, AJA Online Book Review 112.
  • 4. Campbell, D. B. 2013. “Ancient Catapults: Some Hypotheses Reexamined”, Hesperia 80: 677-700.
  • 5. Cole, P. J. 1981. “The Catapult Bolts of IG ii21422”, Phoenix 35: 216-219.
  • 6. Drachmann, A. G. 1977. “Biton, and the Development of the Catapult”, in Yasukatsu Maeyama, Walter G. Saltzer (ed.), Prismata. Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien. Wiesbaden: 119-131.
  • 7. Fachard, S. 2013. “Eleutherai as the gates to Boeotia”, REMA 6: 81-106.
  • 8. Fachard, S. , et al. 2020. “The Fortress of Eleutherai: New Insights from Survey, Architecture, and Epigraphy”, Hesperia 89: 475-549.
  • 9. Filimonos, M. 1994. “Rhodos. Stadtmauer und Stadtentwicklung”, in Wolfram Hoepfner, Ernst-Ludwig Schwandner (ed.), Haus und Stadt im Klassischen Griechenland. Munich: 52-57.
  • 10. Garlan, Y. 1974. Recherches de poliorcétique grecque. Paris.
  • 11. Iriarte, A. 2003. “The inswinging theory ”, Gladius 23: 111-139.
  • 12. Kingsley, P. 1995a. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic. Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford.
  • 13. Kingsley, P. 1995b. “Artillery and Prophecy: Sicily in the Reign of Dionysius I”, Prometheus 21: 15-23.
  • 14. Konecny, A. , et al. 2013. Plataiai. Archäologie und Geschichte einer boiotischen Polis. Vienna.
  • 15. Lewis, D. M. 1988. “The Last Inventories of the Treasurers of Athena”, in Denis Knoepfler (ed.), Comptes et inventaires dans la cité grecque. Geneva: 297-308.
  • 16. Lewis, M. J. T 1999. “When Was Biton?”, Mnemosyne 52: 159-168.
  • 17. Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery. Historical Development. Oxford.
  • 18. Marsden, E. W. 1971. Greek and Roman Artillery. Technical Treatises. Oxford.
  • 19. McLeod, W. E. 1958. “An Unpublished Egyptian Composite Bow in the Brooklyn Museum”, AJA 62: 397-401.
  • 20. McLeod, W. E. 1962. “Composite Bows in New York”, AJA 66: 13-19.
  • 21. Maher, M. 2017. The Fortifications of Arcadian City -States in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods. Oxford.
  • 22. Martini, W. 2016. “Form, Funktion und Bedeutung der Stadtmauern von Perge in Pamphylien”, in Rune Frederiksen, Silke Müth, Peter I. Schneider, Mike Schnelle (ed.), Focus on Fortifications. New Research on Fortifications in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East. Oxford - Philadelphia: 220-231. DOI 10.2307/j.ctvh1dv3d.23
  • 23. Meißner, B. 1999. Die technologische Fachliteratur der Antike. Struktur, Überlieferung und Wirkung technischen Wissens in der Antike (ca. 400 v. Chr. - ca. 500 n. Chr.). Berlin.
  • 24. Meißner, B. 2017. “Aus welchem Material waren die Federn antiker Torsionsgeschütze?”, in Hans Beck, Benedikt Eckhardt, Christoph Michels, Sonja Richter (ed.), Von Magna Grecia nach Asia Minor. Festschrift für Linda -Marie Günther zum 65. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden: 327-338.
  • 25. Meißner, B. 2018. “Some Remarks on Roman Imperial Ballistae”, Mnemon 18: 82-92.
  • 26. Munn, M. 2021. “Inscriptions from Panakton”, Hesperia 90: 281-337.
  • 27. Müth, S. 2014. “The Historical Context of the City Wall of Messene: Preconditions, Written Sources, Success Balance and Societal Impacts”, Proceedings of the Danish institute at Athens 7: 105-122.
  • 28. Ober, J. 1987. “Early Artillery Towers. Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid”, AJA 91: 569-604.
  • 29. Ober, J. 1992. “Towards a Typology of Greek Artillery Towers: the First and Second Generations”, in John M. Fossey, Symphorien Van de Maele (ed.), Fortificationes Antiquae. Amsterdam: 147-169.
  • 30. Reinders, H. R. , et al. 2014. The city of New Halos and its southern gate. Groningen.
  • 31. Rihll, T. E. 2006. “On Artillery Towers and Catapult Sizes”, BSA 101: 379-383.
  • 32. Rihll, T. E. 2007. The Catapult. A History. Yardley.
  • 33. Schellenberg, H. M. 2006. “Diodor von Sizilien 14,42,1 und die Erfindung der Artillerie im Mittelmeerraum”, FeRA 3: 14-23.
  • 34. Stamatopoulou, V. G. 2021. “Excavating the Hellenistic Fortifications of Vergina, Northern Greece”, in Mickael Eisenberg, Rabei Khamisy (ed.), The Art of Siege Warfare and Military Architecture from the Classical World to the Middle Ages. Oxford: 63-72.
  • 35. Theocharaki, A. M. 2020. The Ancient Circuit Walls of Athens. Berlin - Boston.
  • 36. Winter, F. E. 1994. “Problems of tradition and innovation in Greek fortifications in Asia Minor, Late Fifth to Third Century B. C.”, REA 96: 29-52.
  • 37. Winter, F. E. 1997. “The Use of Artillery in Fourth-Century and Hellenistic Towers”, Classical views 41: 247-292.