Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Catapulta

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

CATAPUL'TA (καταπέλτης). A military engine constructed principally for discharging darts and spears of great substance and weight (Paulus ex Fest. s. Trifax); whence it is sometimes put for the missile which it discharges. (Titin. ap. Non. s. v. p. 552. Plaut. Pers. i. 1. 27.) This machine is described in detail by Vitruvius (x. 15.), and it appears no less than six times on the Column of Trajan, from one of which the annexed representation (Catapulta/1.1) is taken; but the details are not sufficiently circumstantial in any one of them to illustrate satisfactorily the words of Vitruvius, or to show the precise manner in which it acted, beyond the general fact that it projected the missile by the force of its rebound, when the cross bar was drawn back from one of the sides, and then allowed to fly again with a recoil. It was also employed in the same manner as the ballista, for projecting large blocks of stone (Caes. B. C. ii. 9.); for which purpose the arch in in the centre seems intended, in order to let the mass pass; and it was also placed at times upon a carriage, and transported by horses or mules, like the carro-ballista, as proved by the next wood-cut.

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  Catapulta/1.1