Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Aries

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

AR'IES (κριός). A battering-ram; an instrument composed of a powerful wooden beam, furnished at one extremity with a mass of iron moulded into the form of a ram's head, which was driven with violence against the walls of a fortified place, in order to effect a breach in them. Cic. Off. i. 11. Virg. Aen. xii. 706.

In the primitive manner of using this instrument, it was carried by a number of men in their arms, and thrust without any other assistance than their united energies, against the opposing walls (Vitruv. x. 13. 1), in the same way as here employed (Aries/1.1) by the Dacians, on the Column of Trajan. The next improvement was to suspend the ram from a beam placed upon uprights, by which means it was swung to and fro, with less manual labour, but much greater mechanical force (Vitruv. x. 13. 2.); and, lastly, it was fixed upon a frame which moved upon wheels, and was covered by a shed and siding of boards, to protect the soldiers who worked it from the missiles of the enemy (Vitruv. l. c.), as here shown (Aries/1.2), from the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus.

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  Aries/1.1
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  Aries/1.2