Talk:Ballista

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Contents 1 Etymology 2 Human Hair 3 Human Hair 4 Longbow more powerful than a ballista? 5 Last use in combat? 6 composite bow 7 Size of a ballista 8 Gastrophetes 9 the two merge requests

[edit] Etymology

How can a Latin word claim to derive from a Latin one?

ITYM "Italian" on the second one, and yes, it doesn't make sense. Dictionary.com gives the etymology as Greek via Latin, so I've updated the article accordingly. DopefishJustin (・∀・) 04:47, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Human Hair

Can someone give a reference to the use of human hair in ballista ropes? It seems unlikely to me. --Carnildo 08:37, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Since no one has obliged, I've edited out all mention of human hair for now. --Simetrical 01:39, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It is mentioned in Salammbô (novel) by Gustave Flaubert. Wandalstouring 19:20, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Human Hair

I have heard that the ropes use sinews and horse hair, but in a pinch they would use human hair.

i've heard that the hair of blonde women was favoured, but that it was useless when it got wet or humid.

I can confirm that wet rendered the torsion system less usefull. therefore it was oiled and protected.

blonde could refer to the length and not to the colour. Germanic women were very proud of their long hair, being part of their sex appeal. And like all Germans in these times invested a lot of time in taking care of their hair.

Wandalstouring 19:22, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Longbow more powerful than a ballista?

"as the .. Longbow, and eventually the Crossbow (learned from the Chinese) were more accurate and powerful"

According to what definition of "powerful" can a longbow outclass a ballista? I suggest to change that paragraph into

"as the Trebuchet and Mangonel were more powerful, while the Longbow, and eventually the Crossbow (learned from the Chinese) were more accurate."

Actually, none of these weapons had the same level of precision of the ballistae. These ancient weapons were the most precise type of catapult ever made and the most sophisticated too. It is impossible to compared the precision of catapults with bows, because bows were operated by hand. Also, it is impossible to say that some type of catapult was more powerful than others.RafaelG

-Removed "(learned from the Chinese)", since no reference is given for this statement, which is dubious since the Romans had a crossbow (the arcuballista) and the Arabs called crossbows "Frankish" bows, suggesting it is more likely the weapon was passed to Western Europe from the Romans rather than the Chinese.

[edit] Last use in combat?

Would anyone know the last time a ballista was used in combat? 66.133.180.65 03:48, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Look up the history of the byzantine Empire. Wandalstouring 19:24, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] composite bow

Gastraphetes means belly bow what does it have to do with a composite bow and how does a crossbow develop from a composite bow? Every other wiki says Gastraphetes were an early version of crossbows. Wandalstouring 19:32, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Size of a ballista

Main source about siege engines and ballistas: http://members.lycos.nl/onager/history.html

The small versions were called Scorpions: http://members.lycos.nl/onager/scorpio.html http://198.144.2.125/Siege/CatapultaPhotos/Catapulta.htm

Gastrophates: http://members.lycos.nl/onager/gastrophetes.html

The ballista and especially the Cheiroballista were developed into small all-metall versions, a development compareable to the Medieval crossbow.

Wandalstouring 19:41, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gastrophetes

They made a lot of improvements, and around 400 b.C., they came up with the Gastrophetes. This was a big step forward in siege engineering, since the gastrophetes (or "bellybow") could lauch an arrow further and with more power than an ordinary bow. It couldn't, however, be used for sieges against towns, since a stone wall wouldn't break down because of a little arrow. http://members.lycos.nl/onager/history.html

-> Gastrophetes is no siege engine and all that stuff about not being able to handle this weapon is nonsense.

The real siege engine was called oxybeles http://members.lycos.nl/onager/oxybeles.html

Wandalstouring 19:52, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] the two merge requests

i am all for these mergers, their article are both short and under developed and they are both pretty clearly deeply related to the balista and would serve the community better by being in this article then having them stand by themselves. on top of that with the cheiroballistra there is already a section about it in this article, which covers nearly all of the same points as it's stand alone article--Manwithbrisk 16:42, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

No merger - these are separate weapons and should have their own articles {{{Keep and Expand}}}. Headphonos 23:14, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

then expand on them, but leaving them as vestigial articles only begs two responces, merge, or delete--Manwithbrisk 06:13, 16 February 2007 (UTC)