06-29-2007, 07:52 PM
Quote:According to Goldsworthy's In the Name of Rome, these were all bolts fired by scorpiones. I noticed the word scorpione in the Latin text but does it also mention a crossbow/manuballista? Or is it just a translation error?
It's just your translation (which, I think, is the 1898 version of Greenough et al.).
Handford's Penguin translation (1951) is better: "An arrow from a catapult pierced his right side and he fell dead." Or Edwards' Loeb translation (1966): "He was pierced by a dart from a scorpion in the right side and fell dead".
(Caesar literally says "He was shot by a scorpio in the right side, and fell down dead".)
We know that the Romans referred to the regular arrow-shooting catapult as a scorpio, so there's no reason to assume that it was a small hand-held device -- if it had been, Caesar would surely have mentioned the fact.