Artillery range, 1st Century AD

[D B Campbell]

If the height of the base (approx 1M) of most arrow-shooters is dictated primarily by the height of the crew, why do the arrow slits in most fortifications appear to start at around that height and usually extend several feet up the wall? If the artillery they were designed to contain was only intended for flat trajectory shooting aimed through the aperture of the frame, they would need only a few degrees of elevation. Since the frame is necessarily close to the universal joint, that would translate to inches rather than feet of change in the height of the "muzzle" of the weapon, and the arrow-slits could be much shorter. If, on the other hand, they were expected to engage targets out to their maximum range by elevating to 40-45 degrees slits running nearly to the ceiling of the casemate would make more sense.

In the room I'm sitting in just now, my window starts approx. 0.82m from the floor and is approx. 1.2m high; this means that I don't need to crouch to see out, because I can still see out when I'm standing straight, but I probably won't fall out of the window, as it only begins around mid-thigh; also, it allows maximum light into an otherwise dark room.

Marsden starts with the towers at Messene, which he believes accommodated artillery (although I don't agree with him -- I think the construction of Messene in 369 BC is too early for catapults to have been a major factor). The towers have arrow-slits at walkwalk level -- the normal type for handbows, starting approx. 0.82m from the floor (like my window) and extending approx. 0.84m high, which means that they allow a reasonable amount of light in, although someone of my height would need to crouch to use them. Marsden believed that catapults were located in the upper chamber, which has windows rather than slits. The windows start a little under 1m from the likely floor level (obviously the timber floor no longer survives) -- are they set higher to prevent people falling out? -- and they are approx. 0.80m square. The builders have taken an arrow-slit, set it slightly higher (as a safety measure?) and widened it to make it square.

I'm not sure that we can read too much into the height of these apertures. (Any argument quickly becomes circular, in any case, as I don't believe there were catapults at Messene. But it gives you an idea of what a Greek architect thought tower windows should look like.)

I wonder if we can find an example where we can agree on the likely presence of catapults?