Reconstructed Gastraphetes

[emilio]

Philon calls Dionysius' polybolos a "skorpidion" (73 Thévenot = 146-7 Marsden), and that machine definitely has nothing in common with the gastraphetes!

Dear Duncan, IMO it is very difficult to shoot with a "polybolos" through a slit size of a cubit...

LIVIUS, 24, 34, 9 - "Postremo, ut sui uolnere intacti tela in hostem ingererent, murum ab imo ad summum crebris cubitalibus fere cauis aperuit, per quae caua pars sagittis, pars scorpionibus modicis ex occulto petebant hostem."
"Lastly, in order that his own men might heap their weapons upon the enemy, without receiving any wounds themselves, he (Archimedes) perforated the wall from the top to the bottom with a great number of loop-holes, about a cubit in diameter, through which some with arrows, others with scorpions of moderate size, assailed the enemy without being seen."

Roman Cubitus : 1.456 ft (English equivalent) - 44,4 cm (Metric equivalent)

ciao,
Emilio