ARIES,
a Ram a Warlike Engine us'd by the Ancients. It was a great Beam of Wood strengthned with Iron at the end,
A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.
About this Item
- Title
- A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.
- Author
- Danet, Pierre, ca. 1650-1709.
- Publication
- London :: Printed for John Nicholson ... Tho. Newborough ... and John Bulford ...,
- 1700.
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- Subject terms
- Classical dictionaries.
- Rome -- Antiquities -- Dictionaries.
- Greece -- Antiquities -- Dictionaries.
- Link to this Item
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A36161.0001.001
- Cite this Item
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"A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A36161.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 15, 2024.
Pages
Page [unnumbered]
which represented the Head of a Ram, where∣with the Ancients were to batter the Walls of Cities, there were Three sorts of them, one was hang'd upon Ropes, another run up∣on Wheels, and a third sort was born up in the Arms of those who made use of it.
This Machine was first invented after this manner; when the Carthaginians laid Siege to Gades, they thought it convenient imme∣diatly to demolish a Castle which they had taken, but having no proper instruments for that purpose, they made use of a great Beam of Wood which many Men bore up in their Arms, and striking the top of the Walls with the end of this Beam by their redoubled blows, they made the uppermost Stones to come down, and so descending lower from one Lay of Stones to another, they batter'd down the whole Fortification. After this a Carpenter of the City of Tyre, call'd Pephas∣menos, taking the hint from the former Expe∣riment, hang'd one Beam upon another like a Balance, which being thrust forward with great force, by many repeated blows he beat down the Wall of the City of Gades.
Cetras the Caelcdonian was the 1st. who made a Carr of Wood which moved upon Wheels. Upon the Carr he laid many pieces of Tim∣ber, whereof some stood upright, and others lay athwart, which he join'd together and made a Hut of them, in which he hung up a Ram, and then he cover'd it with Ox-hides to secure those who play'd the Engine for battering down a Wall: And this Hut was called a Snail to the Ram, because it moved but very slowly. Polydus the Thessa∣lian at last perfected the Engine at the Siege which King Philip the Son of Amyntas laid to Bizantium. This is what Vitruvius tells us B. 10. Ch. 17. But Athenaeus in his Book De Machinis, thinks that Geras the Cartha∣ginian was the Inventor of this Engine: He says also, that this Architect did not sling his Ram in a Hut, as Vitruvius ex∣plains it, but that it was carried by several Men who push'd it forward by the strength of their Arms.