desings and drawings

[lyuv]

Are there any ORIGINAL detailed construction specifications for any roman weapon? Like drawings, textual description of measurments, geometry ect.?

I"m not talking about reverse engineering done from archeological finds, but of documents writen at the period.

[Epictetus]

I'm not sure which weapons you are looking for, but Vitruvius goes into great detail about catapults, ballistae, scorpions and other assorted seige weaponry.

[P. Clodius Secundus]

David is right, the best period source for that kind of detail is Vitruvius. Heron give some details in his works as well. Ammianus uses descriptive language rather than the more techinical jargon used by the engineers. Most of the stuff has been copied so many times it's hard to really trust it. There are still so many unknowns and differences of opinion among the experts its hard to know who's got it right. I'd suggest you read all you can, especially Marsden, Prou, Schramm, Wilkins, Anstee, Campbell, and Iriarte. Then make up your own mind what's real.

[Matthew Amt]

If you're looking for design specifications for weapons such as swords, javelins, and spears, or for armor or shields, there's nothing that I've ever heard of. Plenty of speculation about "pattern pieces", etc., but nothing solidly known. Sorry!

Matthew

[lyuv]

I got to the question of designs through my interest in the "true" forms of the gladius. But eventually I find the general topic interesting for several reasons (beside the obvious, of reconstruction):

1) As an engineer, it interests me how the ancients conceived mechanical design. Nowdays we use diagrams, material properties specifications, tolerances of various types, force measures ect. Vitruvius gives a wonderful insight into the roman engineer's mind. He recognizes a key component and uses proportions for all measurements. This also reveals that this engineer failed to understand/consider that different properties do not change in linear rate with size. For example, weight increases 8 fold as you double length, width and height.

2) If (if !!!) indeed the roman army maintained closely kept standards for decades, throughout the empire, there would have to be a system for documenting designs and specifications. If a decision was made of a detail change or of a totally new device, there need to be a way to spread the word. Pattern pieces system is possible, but not very clever (to say the least).

I would appreciate links to design details like the one given here to Vitruvius.