10-28-2009, 05:00 AM
I won't go out of my element to explore all of these topics, but I will make notes on four: the hand trebuchet, the flame thrower, combined arms tactics, and the counterweight trebuchet.
The hand/human trebuchet may have been invented by the Byzantines or Chinese. Details are very sketchy and I am not smart enough to give you the truth. Consult "Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet" by Stephen McCotter; his bibliography is useful for primary documentation (Miracles of St. Demetrios and Theophylact Simocatta) as well as further discussion.
The flame thrower (flammenwerfer; huzzah for awesome German words!) is another tool invented apparently in the middle ages. Again, was it the Chinese or Byzantines? I apologize for my not having more citations on this topic, but I remember reading the earliest Chinese reference was sometime around 1000 AD, whereas there are sources for a Byzantine flame thrower in the 7th century (Patriarch Nikephoros and Theophanes).
Combined arms tactics were invented God-knows-when, but a good early example is the battle of Delion in 424 where Pagondas used a variety of troops. The Byzantines did use this, of course, but they did not invent it.
The counterweight trebuchet is another tricky bugger. See "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion" by Paul E. Chevedden (this should be used in conjunction with McCotter's work). More or less, Chevedden's thesis runs thusly: the trebuchet was invented in China, improved in Byzantium and Middle East, and perfected in Western Europe. Yet again, I cannot give you the truth.
[Edit: If anyone finds contrary information, please provide it; these mysteries need solving!]
The hand/human trebuchet may have been invented by the Byzantines or Chinese. Details are very sketchy and I am not smart enough to give you the truth. Consult "Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet" by Stephen McCotter; his bibliography is useful for primary documentation (Miracles of St. Demetrios and Theophylact Simocatta) as well as further discussion.
The flame thrower (flammenwerfer; huzzah for awesome German words!) is another tool invented apparently in the middle ages. Again, was it the Chinese or Byzantines? I apologize for my not having more citations on this topic, but I remember reading the earliest Chinese reference was sometime around 1000 AD, whereas there are sources for a Byzantine flame thrower in the 7th century (Patriarch Nikephoros and Theophanes).
Combined arms tactics were invented God-knows-when, but a good early example is the battle of Delion in 424 where Pagondas used a variety of troops. The Byzantines did use this, of course, but they did not invent it.
The counterweight trebuchet is another tricky bugger. See "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet: A Study in Cultural Diffusion" by Paul E. Chevedden (this should be used in conjunction with McCotter's work). More or less, Chevedden's thesis runs thusly: the trebuchet was invented in China, improved in Byzantium and Middle East, and perfected in Western Europe. Yet again, I cannot give you the truth.
[Edit: If anyone finds contrary information, please provide it; these mysteries need solving!]
John Baker
Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due.
- Institutes, bk. I, ch. I, para. I
Justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to every one his due.
- Institutes, bk. I, ch. I, para. I
