§ 1. What stratagems are in battles and the actions of war, engines are in works; for in both the former and the latter there is need of ingenuity, prudence, and sagacity, not of strength or expenditure. An engine, therefore, is a work ingeniously devised and made for effects which would otherwise require greater expenditure and strength. They think it was so called, ὅτι δεῖ μηχανᾶσθαι, “because it is necessary to contrive,” since it is made not by men who yawn idly but by men who direct their mind and art.
In Deuteronomy 20:20 God forbade engines to be constructed from fruit-bearing trees. He calls them מצור, because they fortify, or render strong, those who are besieging. In 2 Chronicles 26:15 Uzziah equips Jerusalem with engines: “And he made in Jerusalem engines of diverse kinds, which he placed in the towers and at the corners of the walls, that they might discharge arrows and great stones.” The Septuagint calls them μηχανὰς μεμηχανευμένας λογισμοῖς, “engines contrived by the calculations of an artificer.” The Hebrew, however, speaks more clearly: חשבנות מחשבת חושב, that is, “engines, the contrivance of one contriving.” חשב is earnest care, and to think by art and turn all things over in the mind. Engines, therefore, were invented in the most ancient times, and new ones are invented daily; nevertheless, if we wish to confess the truth, the engines of engines are the instruments of war—the force of gunpowder in artillery, petards, and mines. Thus now the engines of the ancients have for the most part withdrawn as though thunderstruck.
§ 2. Philologists dispute concerning the antiquity of engines, but nevertheless judge them to come from Moses and those ancient men. Statius attributes them to the Pylians and Messenians in the Trojan War. The Romans used them in the time of the kings, as Lipsius teaches in book 1 of the Poliorcetica. Diodorus, book 12, attributes rams to Pericles.
That there were ancient engines Moses teaches in Deuteronomy 20:20, where they are made principally from wood and are called מצור, a word which signifies siege, fortification, and confinement. Accordingly, whatever belongs to besieging and harassing the besieged is so named. But since in the time of Moses, and in the time which preceded it, there were very strongly fortified cities, walled even up to heaven, as Scripture speaks in Deuteronomy 1:28, and since these same cities were taken, as is evident from the wars of the kings Sihon, Heshbon, Moab, and the Palestinians, it is evident that there were engines. For who would believe that walls were demolished merely with axes and mattocks, or that the cities were taken by hunger? They therefore used engines.
Then in Ezekiel 4:2, 21:22, and 26:8 he mentions engines as things commonly used in his own time. His words in 4:2 are these: “And you shall set a siege against it, and you shall build fortifications, and you shall heap up an embankment, and you shall set camps against it, and you shall place rams round about.” And in 21:22: “At his right hand the divination was made concerning Jerusalem, that he should place rams, that he should open a mouth in slaughter, that he should raise his voice in a howl, that he should place rams against the gates, that he should heap up an embankment, that he should build fortifications.” And in 26:8: “Your daughters who are in the field he shall slay with the sword; and he shall surround you with fortifications; and he shall heap up an embankment round about; and he shall raise a shield against you.”
He calls rams כרים, and the Seventy call them βελοστάσεις, because missiles were discharged from them. But in chapter 26:8, what our version calls vineae and rams is λόγχας in the Seventy; in the Hebrew it is מחי קבלו, which the Seventy render καὶ λόγχας αὐτοῦ, “and his lances.” A ram is also called מחי, Mechi, from destroying, because it casts everything down. קבלו the Seventy render ἐναντίον, “against”; our translator interpreted it as an engine because it is placed against the wall. In whatever way it is taken, it must be understood of engines of war. Kimchi interprets it “the stroke of his engine”; others, a ballista. The Targum has ומחת פגוזוהי, “And the stroke of his engines.” The Chaldaean monarchy therefore had its own engines, and I believe the Assyrians did as well; indeed, I would believe them to have been used even before the Flood. This also has been observed: those nations which established their state by art and reason generally employ engines, while barbarians employ unconsidered force. When the Romans had formed a tortoise, the Parthians, thinking them exhausted, dismounted from their horses and were slain. Dio, in Augustus.
§ 3. Vegetius enumerates these engines: tortoises, rams, hooks, vineae, mantlets, mice, and towers. Vitruvius, book 10, chapters 20 and 23.
The tortoise is an engine of joined shields. The use of the tortoise was that men might approach the wall and undermine it. Certain young Romans, turning a spectacle of the Circus to the use of war, seized the lowest part of a wall, Livy, book 44. They also mounted upon it and made a double and triple tortoise. Ballistae and catapults did not harm it because of its proximity. The first men raised shields above their heads; those following lowered them; the last knelt upon their knees. In this way they repelled cavalry and archers. Dio describes it in this manner: “Further, the tortoise is of this sort and is formed in this manner. After the baggage, the light-armed troops, and all the cavalry have been received into the middle, the heavy-armed infantrymen—those who use oblong shields made in the shape of a tube cut in half—are placed on the outermost parts, like brickwork, as a wall, and, themselves looking outward, encompass all the rest. The others who carry broader shields are placed densely in the middle and raise their shields both over themselves and over the others, so that throughout the whole phalanx nothing but shields may be seen, and all may be safe from the cast of missiles because of the density of the formation. Indeed, they make it so firmly compact that several men can walk upon it; even horses and chariots can be driven upon it whenever they are crowded together in some hollow and narrow place.” That it supported cavalry and chariots could scarcely have been accomplished unless perhaps they assisted it by fixing javelins in the ground. Now, because shields are lacking, a tortoise cannot be made, nor is it expedient that there be one, since men crowded together can be scattered by artillery. They support cavalry with spears, as I shall say in its place.
Vegetius describes the tortoise, the ram, and the hook in this manner in book 4, chapter 14: “A tortoise is woven together from timber and planks; lest it be burned by fire, it is covered with hides, haircloths, and patchwork coverings. It receives within it a beam which either is furnished at its end with hooked iron and is called a hook, because it is curved so that it may draw stones out of the wall; or else its very head is covered with iron and it is called a ram, either because it has a very hard forehead which may undermine walls, or because, after the fashion of rams, it draws back so that it may strike more violently with an impetus. The tortoise, however, has taken its name from its likeness to a true tortoise, because just as the latter at one time withdraws and at another extends its head, so the contrivance at one time withdraws the beam and at another extends it, so that it may fall more forcefully.”
Tortoise, therefore, is a general name which includes the ram and the hook. Vitruvius, book 10, chapter 19, reports that it was an invention of the Carthaginians: “The Carthaginians,” he says, “pitched camp to attack Cadiz; and when they had first taken a fort, they attempted to demolish it. After they had no tools for the demolition, they took a beam and, supporting it with their hands and continually striking the top of the wall with its end, cast down the highest courses of stones and thus gradually dispersed the whole fortification course by course. Afterward a certain Tyrian craftsman named Pephasmenos, induced by this method and invention, set up a mast and from it suspended another crosswise like the beam of a balance; and by drawing it back and thrusting it forward, he cast down the wall of the people of Cadiz with violent blows. But Cetras the Chalcedonian first made a base of timber with wheels placed beneath it, and above it framed upright posts, crossbeams, and struts; upon these he suspended the ram and covered it with ox hides, so that those stationed in that contrivance for striking the wall might be safer. Because the device had slow motions, he began to call it a ram-bearing tortoise.” But it existed earlier in Palestine.
Lipsius teaches that the tortoise was threefold. The χελώνη χωστρίς was for filling ditches and leveling roads; the χελώνη ὄρυξ was prepared for digging; the ram-bearing tortoise was that to which a ram was bound. It is called a tortoise from the slow pace of its advance, for it was a great mass and secure against fires, catapults, and great stones.
On the ram, see Lipsius, book 3 of the Poliorcetica, dialogue 1.
Two beams are preserved at The Hague, of great length, so that they can easily be thrust forward by two hundred men; for little ropes are attached to them.
The greater tortoise was the Helepolis, which Demetrius, who was called Poliorcetes, employed. Marcellinus, book 23, says: “An immense tortoise is framed, its timbers fitted together with very long axles and iron nails, and it is covered with ox hides and a fresh weave of rods; its upper parts are sprinkled with mud, so that it may ward off fiery and missile blows. To its front are fastened extremely sharp three-forked points, heavy with iron weights, of the kind in which painters or sculptors represent thunderbolts to us, so that with their extended points it may tear apart whatever it assails. A numerous body of soldiers within directs this very strong mass with stakes and ropes, and with roused strength applies it to the weaker part of the walls; unless the strength of the defenders above prevails, it opens enormous entrances by battering the walls together.”
§ 4. Vineae were brought up for undermining walls, mantlets for driving away defenders. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 15: “The ancients called vineae what are now called causiae in military and barbarian usage. An engine is joined together from lighter timbers, eight feet high, seven feet wide, and sixteen feet long. Its roof is woven together with a double fortification of planks and wickerwork. Its sides also are fenced with wicker, lest they be penetrated by the impact of stones and missiles. On the outside, moreover, lest it be burned by fire cast upon it, it is covered with raw and fresh hides or with patchwork coverings. When several of these have been made, they are joined in a row; beneath them men, sitting protected, penetrate to the foundations of the walls in order to undermine them. Those are called mantlets which are woven from wicker in the likeness of an apse and protected with haircloths or hides; three small wheels are placed beneath them, one in the middle and two at the ends, and they are brought up after the manner of a cart toward whatever side one wishes. The besiegers apply them to the walls and, protected by their shelter, drive all the defenders from the city’s battlements with arrows, slings, or missiles, so that an easier opportunity of mounting by ladders may be furnished.” Wickerwork and planks imitated trellised vines; earth, and sometimes bricks against fires, were spread over them. They undermined the foundations with axes.
§ 5. Mice were smaller. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 16. Caesar, book 2 of The Civil War: “First, two beams of equal length are placed upon the ground four feet apart; into them small columns five feet high are fixed. These they join to one another by braces with a gentle slope, upon which the timbers that they place for the purpose of roofing the mouse are laid. Upon these they throw two-foot beams and bind them with plates and nails. At the outer edge of the roof of the mouse and at the outermost beams they fasten square strips four inches wide, to hold the bricks which are built over the mice. Thus, when it has been sloped and regularly built as the beams were placed upon the braces, the mouse is covered with bricks and clay so that it may be safe from fire cast from the wall. Hides are drawn over the bricks, lest water sent down through pipes be able to dissolve the stones. The hides in turn, lest they be damaged by fire and stones, are covered with patchwork coverings.”
§ 6. Moving towers were a work of greater size. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 17. See Lipsius, Poliorcetica, dialogue 4.
§ 7. Now all those things are useless, for our artillery would utterly scatter them with a few blows. Formerly they either burned them by making a sortie or set them afire with a phalarica into which they had placed materials that nourished the flames.
They caught hold of the ram with chains.
They placed cushions before it.
They made the wall higher, or drew up another one. If it is lower than the wall, it is rendered useless. But the besiegers deceive them by art. Vegetius, book 4, chapter 19, says: “It is agreed that the contrivance is rendered ineffective if it is found to be lower. But the besiegers are accustomed to employ a device of this sort. First they construct such a tower as seems lower than the city’s battlements. Then secretly they make another small tower of planks within it; and when the engine has been joined to the walls, that small tower is suddenly drawn out from the middle by ropes and pulleys. Armed men, issuing from it, immediately seize the city, because it is found to be higher.”
A Rhodian engineer secretly dug through the earth by a tunnel, and the engine, as he approached it, sank down by its own weight when the ground yielded. Callias drew the Helepolis within the wall. Diognetus impeded the engine by casting refuse upon it. In Marcellinus a malleolus is an arrow shaped like a distaff and filled with fire. “The malleoli,” he says, “a kind of missile, are formed in this manner. It is an arrow of reed, fitted between its point and shaft with a many-forked piece of iron, which is hollowed into the form of a woman’s distaff upon which linen threads are spun. Its belly, delicately pierced at many points, receives fire together with some fuel in its very cavity; and, discharged slowly from a weak bow—for it is extinguished by a more rapid blow—if it adheres anywhere, it burns tenaciously. When sprinkled with water it excites fiercer heats of fire, and it is put to sleep by no remedy except dust cast over it.”
The sambuca is so called, Vegetius, book 4, chapter 21, from its likeness to a cithara. For just as there are strings in a cithara, so in the beam which is placed beside the tower there are ropes which lower the bridge from the upper part by pulleys so that it may reach the wall. Immediately the warriors leave the tower and, passing over it, attack the city walls. It is therefore joined to the tower.
The exostra is a bridge which is extended from a tower, Vegetius, book 4, chapter 21. The tollenon is so called, Vegetius, book 4, chapter 21, whenever one very tall beam is fixed in the earth, and another longer crossbeam is joined at its highest point, measured at the middle, with such a balance that, if you depress one end, the other is raised. At one end, therefore, an engine is woven together from wicker or planks, in which a few armed men are placed. Then, when one end has been drawn and depressed by ropes, they are raised on the other and placed upon the wall.
On ballistae and the other engines, Vegetius, book 4, chapter 22: “Against these things the besieged were accustomed to defend themselves with ballistae, onagers, scorpions, crossbows, staff-slings, archers, and slings. A ballista is stretched with ropes, sinews, and cords. The longer the little arms it has—that is, the greater it is—the farther it discharges darts. If it is adjusted according to the mechanical art and aimed by practiced men who have first taken its measure, it penetrates whatever it strikes. The onager, however, directs stones, but it hurls weights according to the thickness of its sinews and the size of its rocks. For the larger it is, the larger the stones which it hurls after the fashion of a thunderbolt. No species of engines is found more violent than these two kinds. They called those devices scorpions which we now call hand-ballistae; they were so named because by small and slender darts they inflict death. I think it superfluous to describe staff-slings, crossbows, and slings, which present usage recognizes; nevertheless, by the heavier stones directed through the onager, not only horses and men are struck down, but also the engines of the enemy are broken.”
The catapult hurled spears, the ballista stones, although at times the same engine discharged both kinds of missile. Valerius teaches from the African serpent that their force was not equal even to our smaller pieces of artillery. It could not be pierced by the cast of missiles; but at last, assailed by the engines of the ballistae, it fell beneath repeated and weighty blows of flints. Furthermore, those blows did not readily break wooden towers and hides; our artillery passes through everything. Scorpions discharged smaller missiles and were aimed by one man’s hand. Other kinds of arms remain; because they belong almost exclusively to besiegers, I have deferred them to another chapter.