The Ten Books on Architecture, 10.16.1

Vitruvius  translated by Joseph Gwilt

« Vitr. 10.15 | Vitr. 10.16 (end) | About This Work »

Of Machines for Defence

16I have explained what I thought most requisite respecting scorpions, catapultæ, balistæ, no less than tortoises and towers, who invented them, and in what manner they ought to be made. It did not seem necessary to write on ladders, cranes, and other things of simpler construction; these the soldiers of themselves easily make. Neither are they useful in all places, nor of the same proportions, inasmuch as the defences and fortifications of different cities are not similar: for machines constructed to assault the bold and impetuous, should be differently contrived to those for attacking the crafty, and still dissimilar, where the parties are timid.

« Vitr. 10.15 | Vitr. 10.16 (end) | About This Work »