Our new cheiroballista...

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Salve Randi

Have you read Alan's papers on the machine and the reasons he's come to this design? I'd be interested to know specifically at which point you part company with Alan's conclusions. Don't forget Marsden came to much the same conclusion himself. Alan did not use Marsden's research as such, he re-evaluated all available data from source, Greek, Latin and other from first principles i.e. translated all source material for himself.

I cannot read Greek and my Latin is poor to say the least, so I feel I'm not in a position to make an argument either way as I cannot interpit the source material let alone get my hands on it. Have you 'read' the various original source material?

Martin,
I avidly read anything Alan Wilkins has written, but that doesn't mean I draw the same conclusions. True, I don't read Greek or Latin, but I know a thing or two about weapons, mechanics, analyzing images, and I can read English translations. The first major schism occurs with the find of the Hatra frame. It is truly unfortunate that Eric Marsden didn't live to see it. It might well have changed his mind, in which case in-swinging metal-framers would probably be mainstream. Alan certainly advanced beyond Marsden's work, but walking further down the wrong road only gets you more lost. The bottom line is that Aitor's interpretation of the Hatra frame makes sense to me, Alan's does not. Aitor's cheiroballista has demonstated that using small washers and an in-swinging layout, a small, portable, and manually cocked weapon can be produced. It may not be very powerful, but neither were the first automobiles and look how they've turned out. Like many new ideas, Heron's design might have taken years to perfect before it was tuned and scaled enough to be practical on the battlefield. Configued as a traditional out-swinger the same small washers would result in a machine so underpowered it is useless. The answer was to double the size of the washers, scale down an Orsova arch and some field frames to fit. Voila, you have a cheiroballista. Of course, doubling the springs means they can no longer be manually drawn. No problem, add a winch. Never mind that the text doesn't include one. If the crescent shaped fitting gets in the way of the winch just turn it upright and find some use for it later. (side note: the only other weapon to include one was the belly-cocked gastraphetes where it served an actual and AFAIK undisputed purpose) Of course there are a few other problems to iron out. Frames need to be turned 18 degrees? Invent some enormous bronze locking rings (none mentioned or ever found BTW) and bend the ladder ends (also not mentioned). Forked ends of the arch don't fit? Just make the rear ones shorter. Never mind that the long surviving ends of the Orsova arch are diagonally not symmetrically opposed. (one front, one rear) Adding winch, levers, bronze rings and other bits makes it too heavy to shoot by hand so a base is required. The result, in my opinion doesn't really meet the criteria for a cheiroballista. It's closer to a carroballista except that the stock doesn't protrude in front of the frame, but that is a discussion for another day.