04-20-2005, 03:51 PM
Antonius Lucretius, The Xanten chairoballistra is probably 1st century AD, and the Mainz galleys are late Roman (late 4th to very early 5th century), so they can't have been in use together. But in general placing small artillery pieces on patrol ships was certainly common practice - so the Xanten chairoballistra could very well have been used both on land AND on the river. Tacitus mentions an attempt to mew down Batavian insurgents with ship based catapults - this attempt was thwarted by the Batavian oarsmen who took over control of the ships.
I have once discussed this with Aitor; if you shoot a bolt over the water at a very flat angle, it might 'jump' over the surface and hit a target very close to the waterline.
A test would be nice someday
We could provide a floating artillery platform (genuine mini-warship), who wants to test his manuballista on board ?
I have once discussed this with Aitor; if you shoot a bolt over the water at a very flat angle, it might 'jump' over the surface and hit a target very close to the waterline.
A test would be nice someday
We could provide a floating artillery platform (genuine mini-warship), who wants to test his manuballista on board ?
Florian Himmler (not related!)
