Arms, in a general sense, include all kinds of weapons, both offensive and defensive; and amongst the earliest may be classed the bow and arrow, as it gave facilities to man to capture the wild animals for food, probably before their use was required for the purposes of war. The bow and the sling were the first means invented, and next only to the human arm for projecting bodies with an offensive aim: the great principle which, to the present day, reigns unrivalled, developing the ruling passion of man to injure, while remaining himself in comparative safety,—“self-preservation” being “the first law of nature.”
To the bow and sling were soon added spears, swords, axes, and javelins, all of which appear to have been used by the Jews. David destroyed Goliath with a stone from the brook. The invention of the sling is attributed, by ancient writers, to the Phœnicians, or the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands. The great fame that these islanders obtained arose from their assiduity in its use; their children were not allowed to eat until they struck their food from the top of a pole with a stone from a sling. From the accounts left us (probably fabulous), it appears that the immense force with which a stone could be projected, can only be exceeded by modern gunnery. Even at that early age, leaden balls were in use as projectiles; though we cannot put much faith in Seneca’s account of the velocity being so great as frequently to melt the lead. The use of the sling continued over a long period of time, even as late as the Huguenot war in 1572.
The bow is of equal, if not greater, antiquity. The first account we find of it is in Genesis, 21st chapter and 20th verse, where the Lawgiver, speaking of Ishmael, says, “And God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.” The arms of the ancient Greeks and Persians were such as we have described, with the addition of chariots armed with scythes, in which the chiefs sometimes fought; though their main dependence was upon their heavy-armed infantry. Elephants were afterwards used as adjuncts in their military operations, but their use does not appear to have been very great or very permanent.
The Romans were armed much in the same manner as the Greeks, with a slight difference in the form of their weapons; and the arms of the early Saxons were similar; those of the Normans were only altered in their construction, except that to them appears to be awarded the invention of the cross-bow, an instrument which afterwards became of great repute in England and elsewhere. It has also been asserted, that the Normans were the first to introduce a species of field artillery, from which stones and darts were thrown, and arrows, headed with combustible matter, for firing towns and shipping.
The artillery-proper of the ancients, as the engines for projecting masses of stone and such like materials may be termed, reached to wonderful perfection; and the velocity with which missiles of every description could be thrown from them, attest the skill and ingenuity exercised in their construction: indeed it is quite evident they are only excelled by the more portable, and simply constructed, artillery of our own day.
The great artillerist of the Sicilians, Archimedes, seems to have made some of the most powerful engines; but he, considering any attention to mechanics as beneath the philosopher, has not left us an account of any one of them.
It is said of the cross-bow that a quarrel could be projected from them 200 yards, so that we may imagine the force with which one of these lumps of iron would strike even the strongest armour,—as the velocity, to range that distance, would not be far short of 900 or 1,000 feet per second; nearly equal to the effect of a ball from one of our old imperfectly constructed muskets.
We are told incredible stories of the abilities of some of our bygone archers. Should it be true, as stated, that an arrow could be shot nearly 700 yards, we can easily conceive the immense velocity with which it must have left the bow; this range being quite equal, if not superior, to that of the late unimproved rifles. Though we must bear in mind, that the peculiar shape of the arrow fits it to cut the atmosphere with less resistance then the half sphere of a bullet; and hence one reason of its obtaining an extensive range. There is a story told of the famous Robin Hood, and Little John, “who could shoot an arrow a measured mile.” We suppose the mile was the reverse of an Irish one, or they had the advantage of a precious stiff gale of wind. Historians sometimes “draw the long-bow” as well as archers. Many statements have descended to us of the power of the battering rams of old; but we have a much more ready method of blowing open gates by a single bag of gunpowder; and a 68 lb. shot has all the force that could be given even to that famous ram of Vespasian, “the length whereof was only fifty cubits, which came not up to the size of many of the Grecian rams, had a head as thick as ten men, and twenty-five horns, each of which was as thick as one man, and placed a cubit distance from the rest; the weight, as was customary, rested on the hinder part, and was no less than 1,500 talents; when it was removed, without being taken to pieces, 150 yoke of oxen, or 300 pairs of horses and mules, laboured in drawing it, and 1,500 men employed their utmost strength in forcing it against the walls.”