A summary of the history, construction and effects in warfare of the projectile-throwing engines of the ancients, with a treatise on the structure, power and management of Turkish and other Oriental bows of mediæval and later times

Note 4 — PART II THE CATAPULT (WITH A SLING)

Reading edition

See also The Crossbow, etc., Chapters LV., LVI., illustrations 193 to 202.

5 In mediæval times catapults which had not slings cast great stones, but only to a short distance in comparison with the earlier weapons of the same kind that were equipped with slings. I can find no allusions or pictures to show that during this period any engine was used with a sling except the trebuchet, a post-Roman invention. All evidence goes to prove that the secret of making the skein and other important parts of a catapult was in a great measure lost within a couple of centuries after the Romans copied the weapon from their conquered enemies the Greeks, with the result that the trebuchet was introduced for throwing stones.

The catapult was gradually superseded as the art of its construction was neglected, and its efficiency in sieges was therefrom decreased.

The catapults of the fifth and sixth centuries were very inferior to those described by Josephus as being used at the sieges of Jerusalem and Jotapata (A.D. 70, A.D. 67), p. 37.

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