THE CATAPULTA AND BALLISTA.
Their prototype was the “tormentum” of the Romans.[42] The two machines are often confounded with each other. The catapulta was used for throwing heavy darts, while the ancient ballista threw stones only, but the mediæval variety was often arranged for both quarrels and rocks. Some ballistæ threw stones three hundred pounds in weight. The difference in the construction of these military engines from those made on the ordinary principle of the bow consisted in the addition of a mechanical force. There were also small catapultæ used like hand-guns. Remains of ballistæ were found among the débris of the castle of Russikon in Switzerland, which was burnt down in the thirteenth century.
Vitruvius and other writers give a full account of these machines, but the copyist, as has usually happened in all ages, made such mistakes as to render the descriptions well-nigh unintelligible, so there is still a good deal of uncertainty concerning them. In chronicles of the twelfth century crossbows are always termed “ballistæ.”
The principle applied in the ballista was that of the bow, but instead of the usual arc, with its simple directive force, a kind of double action was achieved by providing the machine with a strong rectangular frame of wood, constructed in three compartments, firmly fixed on to a stand, which was made of strong and hard wood, consisting of two uprights connected horizontally by a double crossbeam. Instead then of applying the entire arc, as in the crossbow or scorpion, and assuming such arc or bow to have been divided into four quarters, only the two end quarters were used; and in each of the outer compartments of the frame two very strong strands of twisted sinews were fixed, and through these the inner ends of the two pieces were firmly held, the bending of which gave much more elasticity and propulsive force, thus producing a recoil strong and forcible enough to project heavy missiles to a distance of as far as 250 yards. The engine was fitted with an iron groove. In sighting the machine for the discharge of a heavy stone, pieces of clay were used to keep the projectile at the necessary angle before discharge. There are four stone shot at Woolwich 15, 16, and 18 inches in diameter, supposed to be catapult balls.
The above explanation will make apparent how very difficult it is to describe even the simplest machine in mere language; besides, you have the difficulties of translation to contend with. [Fig. 48], from a MS. in the National Library of Paris, No. 17,339, explains the principle at a glance.
Besides these machines, there are others constructed on the sling principle, like the mangona and mangonet, from which the word “gun,” originally “gon,” is probably derived. There are two stone balls at the Rotunda, Woolwich, which are said to have been thrown from a mangonel used in the defence of Kenilworth Castle in 1266. The onager or onagre is thought by some writers to be merely the old French name for the catapulta, while Grose gives a figure representing the onagre as a machine for slinging rocks. The trebuchet is a machine constructed on this principle (the swing and weighted lever), both for hurling and swinging a heavy stone against a rampart, breaching or breaking it down; it also threw barrels of Greek fire. Matthew Paris mentions this machine as peculiarly effective. This engine seems to be the mangonel under another name. The tolleno was used in siege operations to lift soldiers up on to a wall. During the centuries immediately preceding the introduction of firearms there were many machines invented for the hurling of darts and stones, used both on land and sea—the robinet, the espringal, ribandequin, a large crossbow, etc. The missile-casting engines used on ships of war were mounted on raised platforms. The late Emperor Napoleon III. had a trebuchet constructed after an ancient inscription, and this machine is now at Vincennes.
Another called the warwolf is mentioned by several of the early writers, but they all differ considerably concerning it. Procopius describes it as a machine of the harrow family, for the defence of a gate; it seems to have been rather similar to the herse, used as a second defence after the portcullis had been forced.
The falarica was for throwing fiery darts. It was used by the Saguntines, when the shaft was wrapped round with tow steeped in oil and smeared with sulphur and resin. This was ignited and the missile launched against the “pluteus,” a machine which was the prototype of the mediæval “sow” or “cat.”
Many of these machines continued in use long after the introduction of firearms. A common feature in most ancient MSS. is that fancy names are freely applied to most of them, thus giving rise to much difficulty in their identification.
PART XXI.
MACHINES FOR ATTACKING BELEAGUERED PLACES.
The castle of the middle ages up to the invention of the bombard was practically that of the ancient “castellum,” as far as defence was concerned, with outworks frequently of wood; and the means of attack lay in escalade, sapping and mining, the use of the battering-ram, or by a blockade.
We now touch upon the machines used in attacks on fortified places, most of which have their prototypes during ancient times in the testudo, pluteus, tenebra, etc.
The battering-ram, the tenebra of the Romans, used both on land and sea, was a heavy oak beam tapering towards the head, which was shod with iron with a point at the extremity. It was exactly the same in the middle ages as in Roman times. There is a Roman specimen in the Germanische Museum at Nuremberg, which is about a foot in diameter at the base, and about eleven feet in length. It is still shod with iron.
Sometimes in the middle ages this machine was made available for the united energies of many men, by means of beams joined together and suspended in a sling or massive trestle, whereby its force could be enormously increased. It was sometimes impelled on rollers or wheels and rapidly run forward to batter a wall. An engine similar to this is figured at Nineveh. The besieged did their best to deaden its effect by means of woolsacks or bags of hair let down from the parapet.
The “sow” or “cat,” the vinea of the Romans, is a shed on wheels, covered with raw hides, used as a cover for preparing the way for the use of movable towers and other engines. This machine is the ancient “pluteus.”
The testudo (testa, a shell), the more modern “tortoise,” was also a movable shed like the cat, but it contained a battering-ram for attacking a rampart.
The berefreid, beffroi or belfrey, is a movable tower used for scaling walls. It was constructed in several storeys, with intercommunications by means of ladders or staircases, and high enough to overtop the parapet of the fortress assailed; provided with a drawbridge for an assault in force, and was often rolled on wheels to the point of attack. A machine of this kind, built by order of Simon de Montfort, was used at the siege of Toulouse, and, according to the ballad of the “Albigéois,” was adapted to contain five hundred men. The last of these engines was constructed as late as the reign of Charles I., and it was taken by the parliamentary forces.
Mantlets stuck in the ground provided shelter for the archers, and other combatants, beneath the walls, against “Greek fire,” showers of rocks, and other missiles, hurled from the battlements by the defenders.
“Greek fire” was used both in attack and defence. This was a Greek invention, as its name implies, and the secret of its composition was most jealously guarded. It was known in the east of Europe as early as 673, and was for a long time regarded as supernatural by the northern nations in the “dark ages,” but the secret was discovered by the Crusaders—in fact, Philip of France brought some of it from Acre, and used it for setting fire to the English ships at the siege of Dieppe. Jesuit Petavius states on the authority of Nicetas, Theophanes, and Cedrenus, that it was invented about the year 660.[43] Anna Comnena gives the ingredients as bitumen, sulphur, and naphtha; and states that the Emperor Alexius discharged it at the enemy from his galleys. Others add pitch and gum to these ingredients. It was used in many ways, but its most fatal and irresistible form of application was in setting fire to fortified towns, where the wooden houses of mediæval times afforded it free scope, when inadequately guarded against by a sufficient application of raw hides to the roofs, and other means of protection. A mixture of vinegar, sand, and urine was used to put out its flames. Barrels of “Greek fire” were fired into these towns from the ancient “trebuchet,” and also by a kind of mortar; it was also freely used by the besieged for the destruction of movable towers and engines of war. Froissart, in his account of the attack by the Black Prince on the castle of Romorantin on the Sandre, mentions an engine he calls an “aqueraux” to fire “le feu gregois.”
PART XXII.
THE SLING AND FUSTIBAL.
These rude missile-casting weapons, with the longbow, were greatly used by the peasantry and yeomanry of the early “middle ages.” The first-named is too familiar to need much description, and its very ancient character is universally known. The Spaniards employed it with great effect at the battle of Navarete, where, Froissart says, “they broke many helmets and skullcaps, so that they wounded and unhorsed many of their opponents.” At the Rotunda, Woolwich, are twelve sling stones of two sizes, viz., 2.35 and 1.7 inches in diameter. These stones came from Rhodes—they are pebbles covered with lead. A single slinger appears on the margin of the Bayeux tapestry; the weapon is being used by a peasant aiming at a bird.
The fustibal, or staff-sling, consists of a long pole, four feet in length, with a sling in the middle. An example is recorded in a MS., which is attributed to Matthew Paris, in Benet College Library, Cambridge, C. 5, xvi. It was wielded by both hands to cast large stones against an enemy, and was in use as late as the sixteenth century for hurling grenades. The ordinary sling was still to the fore in the fourteenth century—indeed, it was sometimes used in warfare even in the sixteenth; Grose gives an instance at the siege of Sancerre in 1572. The author saw it in Egypt, used by boys for frightening birds from the bean fields.