Latin/Roman Name for our type of Artillery Unit

[kevair464]

More pictures. The unit is almost complete, just need to finish up the winch mechanism at the aft of the unit, should be 100% done by next week. Here are some pictures, let me know what you think

[M. Demetrius]

Looks impressive. I wouldn't want to stand in front of it when it sends a bolt downrange! I'll send you my shipping address, and you can put it on a truck right away. That way, I can get a better look at it, don't you know? I'll send it back to you... :lol:



...Someday, prolly. :wink:

[Salvianus]

If a soldier who used a hasta was called a hastatus, couldn't a ballista crew member be a

ballistatus

(bah LIST ah toos)?

Good question, I wish I knew the answer! :wink:

However, and perhaps more helpfully, Vegetius is 4th century but lists archers, slingers, and balistarii (sagittarios funditores ballistarios) alongside principes, hastati, triarii (principes hastatos triarios) in his description of the disposition of the legion. However, it is possible that he is referring to lighter forms of bolt thrower and he is a bit dodgy in parts, although as the main problem here is that he is using 'old style' terminology, it may still be relevant. You may prefer the campaigner Ammianus Marcellinus' description of the bolt throwing ballista which refers simply to iuvenes agiliter 'agile young men' who tension the mechanism and an artifex 'craftsman' which seems to have passed into military terminology as 'engineer', who loads and aims. For the Scorpio/Onager he uses magister 'master'. Sounds like everyday descriptions rather than titles to me, but they seem to fit.

I probably should add that I think the stress in hastatus is hast AH tus and balistarius balist AH rius, plural balistarii balist AH reee.

Hope that's helpful

[Crispvs]

I just noticed this thread.

First of all, well done on a lot of hard work and dedication. I am well aware of how long these things can take to do and I am sure more people have given up than finished, so well done again.

That said, I do have to admit to being a little worried about your piece. Pine is very prone to splitting and cracking (even good quality pine) and when the machine is fully tensioned the pressure thus created could well destroy the head unit. Obviously this is what the metal plating is there to prevent. However, the plate seems quite thin from what I can see in the photos and copper-alloys are not as tough as iron or steel. This suggests to me that the plating could either bend (if it has a very high copper content) or crack (if it is closer to true bronze), neither of which would be beneficial in the preservation of the underlying wood.

Therefore, whilst I can see that an awful lot of love and care has gone into your machine, I wonder if it might be well worth spending some extra time replacing the copper-alloy plating with steel plating of a fairly strong thickness. I would hate to see all of that hard work damaged beyond repair a soon as you wound it up to a suitable tension for shooting.
I have spent quite a lot of time over the last decade using a three span scorpio made of seasoned oak, with all of the parts joined with mortice and tennon joints, which is plated with fairly thick steel. I can attest to the noise produced by the wood when we wind the arms back to take a shot with the machine tensioned up to anything like full tension. You get used to the sound of the rope springing under pressure but the sound of the oak under pressure as well can be a little frightening.

Incidentally, our crews are referred to as 'ballistarii'. I give no guarantee of the accuracy of this term but at least our drill manual and all of our Latin terminology was translated into Latin by a Latin teacher so it should, at least, be good Latin.

http://www.romanarmy.net/artillery.htm

Crispvs

[AuxArcher]

I do agree with Crispvs, and that is what struck me when I viewed your machine. Wondeful work, btw. At the least, you will have wasted a lot of time and resources only to see your machine split or disintegrate, and at worst, a crew member could be hurt. I dont think you guys are attempting just a display piece, either.

In the recent past, one guy posted a wonderfully done arrow shooter, made of birch, I believe, and one of his side stanchions split not long after he began testing, thereby dooming the machine.

Ash or some other type of hardwood is not terribly expensive. The time involved in all those mortise and tenon joints is what makes the work so time consuming. As well, I'd go with single thickness hole carriers rather than two boards laminated together. If you cant find stock that thick, then stronger laminations would be nice, maybe using a modern glue like Urac.

And yes, thicker steel plating. The ancient engineers included the plating for a reason, after all.

Dane

[kevair464]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've been busy and haven't been able to post any replys lately. We have test fired the unit about 10 times now to full tension and it works very well. I to am concerned about the splitting, we had some cracks develop during the initial tightening of the rope spliens, we filled in the cracks with a very strong industrial epoxy and nailed on some metal stripping running across the head pieces to help with the tension. After the test firings we inspected the head unit and the wood is holding great, no scary sounds either after the first time and it shoots a small bolt about 350 feet.

This will mostly be a display piece, we will fire it at events that permit its use, but most school and other displays are far to crowded to actually fire it. The tension arms are made from ash, so these are plenty strong. The head wood pieces are nailed and glued together. Hopefully it wont split, and we have that under control at the moment, knock on wood.