Plutarch ( AD 45-120), Parallel Lives: MarcellusĪt the same time huge beams were run out from the walls so as to project over the Roman ships: some of them were then sunk by great weights dropped from above, while others were seized at the bows by iron claws or by beaks like those of cranes, hauled into the air by means of counterweights until they stood upright upon their sterns, and then allowed to plunge to the bottom, or else they were spun round by means of windlasses situated inside the city and dashed against the steep cliffs and rocks which jutted out under the walls, with great loss of life to the crews. (Translation by Aubrey de Selincourt in The War with Hannibal, Penguin Classics, New York, 1965. Then the whole contraption was suddenly let go, and the ship, falling smash as it were from the wall into the water (to the great alarm of the crew), was more or less swamped even if it happened to come down on an even keel. The method was this: the swing-beam projected over the wall and an iron grapnel was attached to it on a heavy chain the grapnel was lowered on to a vessel's bows, and the beam was then swung up, the other arm being brought to the ground by the shifting of a leaden weight the result was to stand the ship, so to speak, on her tail, bows in air. Some of the enemy ships came close in-shore, too close for the artillery to touch them and these he dealt with by using a swing-beam and grapnel. Livy (59 BC- AD 17), History of Rome from its Foundation, Book XXIV.34 (Translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert in The Rise of the Roman Empire, Penguin Classics, New York, 1980. The result was that some of the vessels heeled over and fell on the sides, and others capsized, while the majority when their bows were let fall from a height plunged under water and filled, and thus threw all into confusion. When the operator had lifted up the ship's prow in this way and made her stand on her stern, he made fast the lower parts of the machine, so that they would not move, and finally by means of a rope and pulley suddenly slackened the grappling-iron and the chain. As soon as the prow was securely gripped, the lever of the machine inside the wall would be pressed down. Against these attackers the machines could discharge stones heavy enough to drive back the marines from the bows of the ships at the same time a grappling-iron attached to a chain would be let down, and with this the man controlling the beam would clutch at the ship. Other machines invented by Archimedes were directed against the assault parties as they advanced under the shelter of screens which protected them against the missiles shot through the walls. 200-118 BC), Universal History, Book VIII.6
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |