Greek and Roman Artillery

620 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE eral cultural outlook, which attempts to look upon great and small monuments from ancient times more as expressions of a complicated social structure than as the results of individual accomplishments. An overall estimate of this kind is rarely found in literature for specialists, but scholars must never feel themselves above adopting general points of view. Jens Erik Skydsgaard* Greek and Roman Artillery: Historical Development. By E. W. Mars­ den. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Pp. xviii-j-218; 14 plates, 54 figures, 5 indexes. $11.75. This is only one part of the whole work; a companion volume is under way, and has the subtitle: Technical Treatises. It contains the author’s interpretations of the ancient belopoiics: Philon, Biton, Vitru­ vius, and Heron. About the Belopoiics of Philon, Heron, and Vitruvius, there is no difference of opinion between the author and myself; but about Biton and Heron’s Cheiroballistra it is otherwise. The author often refers to the Technical Treatises, but as long as I do not know his arguments, I cannot tell if he is right or not in his valuation of these two works; so I must reserve my opinion. Wherever the author uses Biton’s book or Heron’s Cheiroballistra for his conclusions, I cannot accept his results without further investigation. Fortunately, only a very small part of the Historical Development depends upon Biton, and even here the author may be right. But the value of the work lies in quite another field. The author has set himself the task of tracing every bit of documen­ tation about the use of artillery in Greek and Roman antiquity. His index of authors lists sixty-nine names, mostly of historians, Greek and Roman, including Josephus; but the Old Testament is there also, as are Cicero, Plautus (sixteen quotations), and Aristophanes. Next there is an index of quotations from nineteen different collections or editions of inscriptions. Then there is the iconographical material, photographs of reliefs, mostly from the Trajan column, and the investigations of remains of ancient fortifications, most of which the author has visited himself. It seems that the author wanted his material to be exhaustive, and it really looks as if he has succeeded. This material, presented objectively and fully documented, has a value of its own, and the book will prove indispensable for those who study the history of ancient artillery and also of great interest for those who study the history of warfare in antiquity, without regard to the use the author makes of it. • Dr. Skydsgaard, professor of ancient history at the University of Copenhagen, is the author of Den romerske villa rustica, Varro the Scholar, and Pompeii. 9 TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 621 To this then must be added the contributions of the author in the interpretation of the material. He has made life-size models of the catapults; he has investigated the use of artillery in open combat and in sieges, with explanation of its use in attack and defense. He shows how the use of catapults influenced the shape of the fortifications and illustrates it by means of diagrams of trajectories and fields of fire from rectangular, semicircular, hexagonal, and pentagonal towers; and he shows how the texts of the poliorcetics are confirmed by the shape of the fortifications still remaining. There is a chapter on catapults in field campaigns and in naval war­ fare and a long account of the Roman imperial artillery, when each legion of the regular army was provided with a certain number of catapults and the necessary personnel. The author has discussed all aspects of the use of artillery in antiq­ uity; the book makes excellent reading, and the results are very con­ vincing. Against this solid piece of work, my few objections seem rather trifling, but I still think that they should be made. The author writes (p. 5) that E. Schramm, who made reconstruc­ tions of all known catapults, seems to have believed that the gastra­ phetes was provided with arms made of steel. But Schramm writes that the straight bow, εν&ντονοι, was made of wood, but the double-curved bow, παλίντονος, was made from the horns of animals, for example

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