FOOTNOTES:
[103] Cf. The description of the ballista and other engines of war in Ammianus Marcellinus, XXII. iv. The engine here described by Procopius is the catapult of earlier times; the ballista hurled stones, not arrows. See the Classical Dictionaries for illustrations.
[104]The "shaft" is a holder for the missile, and it (not the missile) is driven by the bowstring. When the holder stops, the missile goes on.
[105]A popular etymology of ἁλλιστρα, a corrupted form of βἁλλιςτα; the point is in the Greek words βἁλλω + μἁλιστα, an etymology correct only as far as βἁλλω is concerned.
[106] Called also "scorpions"; described by Ammianus, l.c.
[107] This contrivance was not one familiar to classical times. The "lupi" of Livy XXVIII. iii. were hooks; Vegetius, De Re Militari, ii. 25 and iv. 23, mentions "lupi" (also hooks), used to put a battering-ram out of action.