The Range of the Ancient Bow
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3938160 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wallace E Mcleod (corresponding author), Wallace Mcleod |
| Year | 1965 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1 |
| Publication date | 1965-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phoenix (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1086685 |
| OpenAlex | W2325249210 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
CIRCE, WHILE WARNING ODYSSEUS of the dangers to come, told him that one might shoot an arrow across (KaL KEP 6~LoiareruEas) the strait from Scylla to Charybdis (Hom. Od. 12.102). In the Cyropaedia (1.4.23) Xenophon recounts how the Assyrians invaded Media and were met by Astyages; when he refused the conventional missile skirmish and advanced within bowshot (vras L-v6/EYvoS '6s1 875l ro~Evaros), the astonished Assyrians broke and fled. When the Ionians at the passage of the Ister were pressed by the Scythians to betray Darius, they feigned assent and destroyed the bridge, but only the north end far as an arrow reaches (6uov Tb6evya EiKVETraL, Hdt. 4.139.1). The Thracians, after butchering the people of Mycalessus in 413, fled back to the Euripus, but their ships abandoned them and anchored out of bowshot (itew OCcoteblaroS, Thuc. 7.30.2). When Agathocles was trying to land in Africa, the Carthaginians overtook him; the two fleets battled with slings and arrows until the Greeks began to prevail, whereupon the foe retired and moored a little out of range (MLKpbY w BXovs, Diod. Sic. 20.6.3). In A.D. 238 when Maximinus Thrax reached Aquileia his troops proceeded to invest the city, staying out of bowshot (telvavres Qco rotebmaros, Herodianus 8.4.6). While such passages hardly raise the bowshot to the dignity of a formal unit of length, they certainly imply an approximate measurement, howsoever empirically devised. Modern estimates range from 64 metres to 600 metres.' Surely greater precision than this can be wrung from the evidence
Range (aeronautics) · Aerospace Engineering · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Engineering · Geology · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2021 (38) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |