[29] 57¾ lbs. (avoirdupois).
[30] Two stades would be 404 yards; the measure of a stade is 606¾ English feet.
‘The blow they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those who stood first in the way but by those who were beyond them for a great space.
‘As for the Jews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it was of a white colour and could therefore not only be perceived by the great noise it made, but could be seen also before it came by its brightness; accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave notice when an engine was let go ... so those that were in its way stood off and threw themselves down upon the ground. But the Romans contrived how to prevent this by blacking the stone; they could then aim with success when the stone was not discerned beforehand, as it had been previously.’
The accounts given by Josephus are direct and trustworthy evidence, for the reason that this chronicler relates what he personally witnessed during the sieges he describes, in one of which (Jotapata) he acted the part of a brave and resourceful commander.
Tacitus in describing a battle fought near Cremona between the armies of Vitellius and Vespasian, A.D. 69, writes: ‘The Vitellians at this time changed the position of their battering-engines, which in the beginning were placed in different parts of the field and could only play at random against the woods and hedges that sheltered the enemy. They were now moved to the Postumian way, and thence having an open space before them could discharge their missiles with good effect.’[31]
[31] Tacitus continues: ‘The fifteenth legion had an engine of enormous size, which was played off with dreadful execution and discharged massy stones of a weight to crush whole ranks at once. Inevitable ruin must have followed if two soldiers had not signalised themselves by a brave exploit. Covering themselves with shields of the enemy which they found among the slain, they advanced undiscovered to the battering-engine and cut its ropes and springs. In this bold adventure they both perished and with them two names that deserved to be immortal.’
Froissart chronicles that at the siege of Thyn-l’Evêque, 1340, in the Low Countries, ‘John, Duke of Normandy had a great abundance of engines carted from Cambrai and Douai. Among others he had six very large ones which he placed before the fortress, and which day and night cast great stones which battered in the tops and roofs of the towers and of the rooms and halls, so much so that the men who defended the place took refuge in cellars and vaults.’
Camden records that the strength of the engines employed for throwing stones was incredibly great and that with the engines called mangonels[32] they used to throw millstones. Camden adds that when King John laid siege to Bedford Castle, there were on the east side of the castle two catapults battering the old tower, as also two upon the south side besides another on the north side which beat two breaches in the walls.
[32] Catapults were often called mangons or mangonels, but in course of time the name mangonel was applied to any siege engine that projected stones or arrows. In this case the trebuchet is intended, as no catapult could project a millstone.