06-27-2007, 07:18 PM
Quote:Did the Greeks not invent the manuballista?If you look further back in the thread, you'll see that "manuballista" is usually reckoned to be the Latin version of the Greek word "cheiroballistra", which was the iron-framed, hand-held arrow-shooter of the Romans. (This is a completely different machine from the Xanten find.)
The Greeks definitely had a small arrow-shooting catapult, judging by the presence of a single small catapult washer (amongst a hoard of 21 assorted washers) in the ruins of a fortified farmstead in Epirus, apparently dating from the early/mid 2nd C BC.
We have no idea what they would have called such a machine, but it definitely wouldn't have been a manuballista!
Perhaps this is the skorpidion mentioned by Polybius (8.5.6).
