Roman Ballistae in Modern Popular Culture

[Duncan Head]

Duncan,
Is the parenthetical term (Cheirobalistrai) present in the original text, or is it a later clarification? The Cheiroballistra is by definition a diminutive hand-held weapon. Taken in context the author seems to be describing individual weapons smuggled or secreted away in the wagons, rather than the Carroballista described by Vegetius and assumed to be the ones seen on Trajan's Column.

Yes, cheirobolistra is Constantine's original Greek, which the Moravscik translation renders as "arbalest". However whether all weapons termed cheirobalistrai were necessarily hand-held is, I think, still an open question.