Machine in Tacitus Histories - Printable Version

Machine in Tacitus Histories - Printable Version

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Machine in Tacitus Histories - Anonymous - 05-19-2004

Hi. 
 
I read through book IV of Tacitus Hitories today and I have a question now. In chapter 30 he writes the following: 
 
"The Batavians had raised a tower two stories high, which they brought up to the Praetorian gate of the camp, where the ground was most level. But our men, pushing forward strong poles, and battering it with beams, broke it down, causing great destruction among the combatants on the top. The enemy were attacked in their confusion by a sudden and successful sally. All this time many engines were constructed by the legionaries, who were superior to the enemy in experience and skill. Peculiar consternation was caused by a machine, which, being poised in the air over the heads of the enemy, suddenly descended, and carried up one or more of them past the faces of their friends, and then, by a shifting of the weights, projected them within the limits of the camp. Civilis, giving up all hope of a successful assault, again sat down to blockade the camp at his leisure, and undermined the fidelity of the legions by the promises of his emissaries." 
 
 
Now I wondered about this machine. It sounds like some kind of crane but I'm having problems to imagine how it might have looked like or how it worked. I don't remember ever reading about a machine like that used in combat so I thought I'd ask the experts, right? So does anyone have an idea or source where I might find out a bit more about this machine? thank you.

Re: Machine in Tacitus Histories - Dan Diffendale - 05-19-2004

It vaguely reminds me of the crane designed by Archimedes at Syracuse for lifting Roman ships out of the water... not that that's really any help at all...

Re: Machine in Tacitus Histories - mcbishop - 05-19-2004

It sounds even more like a variant on the tolleno in Vegetius IV.21, but that has a box with a few soldiers on one end. 
 
Mike Bishop

Re: Machine in Tacitus Histories - D B Campbell - 05-19-2004

Couldn't resist weighing in on this one. 
Tacitus is being infuriatingly concise (as per usual). He refers only to a suspensum et nutans machinamentum, literally a "hanging and nodding device", which translators usually render as "crane". 
(You are quoting the rather old-fashioned Church & Brodribb translation -- the Penguin or Oxford World's Classics translations are a bit more user-friendly.) 
Tacitus specifies that "when [the device was] suddenly lowered, one or more of the enemy, snatched up past the faces of their comrades [we would say "before their very eyes"], were deposited inside the camp, a weight having been shifted." 
As Mike says, the device is very reminiscent of Vegetius' tolleno (on which, see my Greek and Roman Siege Machinery, pp.33-4). 
Our earliest siegecraft text, Aeneas Tacticus (writing about 350 BC) mentions "swing beams" for capturing individual enemy soldiers in a noose, probably using the type of crane known as a "gaff". (You can see this in Landels, p.94.) 
In antiquity, during sieges, cranes were often used, especially to drop heavy weights onto the besiegers and/or their machinery (e.g., at Ambracia in 189 BC: Polybius 21.27.4; Livy 38.5.4). 
Here endeth the lecture ...

Re: Machine in Tacitus Histories - JRSCline - 05-20-2004

Very helpful, thanks! 
 
All: The staff would certainly love to see more references to primary sources in posts on Roman Army Talk. Everyone is STRONGLY encouraged to "crack a Loeb" and use citations here. You'd be surprised how helpful this is to serious students and researchers, most of whom lurk. 
 
Jenny

Re: Machine in Tacitus Histories - Anonymous - 05-20-2004

Thak you very much.