Roman crossbow pics

[john roberts]

Ooh, I think I saw that one being aimed at Leonidas at the end of "300".

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

ummm ... ah.. I think this pre-dates the 300.

If it was hollywierd it would be three times as large and the horn shaped thingies would be four times as large as well as barbed. Plus no ninja wrap-around chains, and rocket assist velocity enhancers. The fact it also did not come imbedded in a "300" style helmet is s dead give away. No plastic skull either. ... I kinda rule out hollywood.

[Vindex]

Now...where is Warhammer when you want him?

Anyone else seen the video of his recent prototype reconstruction of the cross bow?

[Eleatic Guest]

Looks like a catapult bolt to me, too large for a handheld crossbow.

[Warhammer1]

Would Roman inswinger torsion crossbow make ya happy?

Since Romans did use pulleys at that time, I decided to see how they might be used to make a compounding scorpio or full sized compounding ballista. A simple way to double the string speed to arm speed ratio.

Why invent the pulley if you dont know how to use it best? To assume great engineers and mathematicians (Philons "doubling the cube" formula) couldnt figure that out seems proposturous to me. Unthinkable.

Thanks for the great pictures, of the "crossbows" as I wasnt aware the term crossbow was used but rather scorpio or manuballista.

[Warhammer1]

I am guessing a hunting rather than a military context for these crossbows?

A forty five pound pull like has been suggested and especially with a short throw crossbow such as the medievel types with a foot or less of draw, would not be suitable for hunting purposes. For it to hit even 40m one would have o aim pretty high, the animal not see and watch the slow arrow coming.

The chinese repeating crossbow was made for rather unskilled crossbowers and was perfect. AT about 45lbs it was simply pointed in the air at angle and a volley of arrows let go.

This way the gravity became a friend instead of trying to aim horizontally where gravity and a slow moving arrow dont mix well at any distance.

If I was in a treestand waiting for a deer to pass below, then it would be fine.

An inswinger proponent, I have a nice little inswinger "scorpio" or manuballista (your choice in terms), about 60lbs of pull, and gets right at 174fps with a 350 grain arrow.

However, my use of the wide spacing varies in use from either Nick Watts inswinger or Alan Wilkins outswinger designs. Thus I can get fairly good speeds from low pull. A medievel crossbow with a short throw would have to be about 160lbs pull to get same velocity.

I will tell you that if performance and range count for anything at all, then the Orsova would have been an inswinger. Watch Nick hit over 400fps - probly 425. His new arm design and rest position comes from my study of the Orsova find as housed in the Museum - which is kinda whacky as it is incorrectly constructed as on display.

Did anyone notice that the artist interpretation of a relief suggests the bow limbs were in fact detachable? Looks like the crossbow was made to be disassembled and reassembled at will. Not one solid piece.

[Warhammer1]

If indeed a "bolt" or bolt head, then its design is indeed puzzling. Its construction suggests it to be swung and impacting something, used to stab, or even cut while in a pulling motion (thrust and jab). Those two little horns there might be handly if you wanted to not only stop a blade, by capture the blade and hold it with a little twisting motion....

Seems made more for hand to hand combat.

JMHO for what its worth.

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

The bolt, and I see no other purpose, by construction, seems to be intended to be placed on a shaft. This would be through a hollow core type shaft such as a reed. The exposed portion of the functional area is 6cm. (2.4 inches. THe "horns" project 3mm and are 7mm in length, making it totally incapable of catching any sort of blade. It is possible that these were intended to accentuat a flessh wound, or to catch on mail. The cross section of the "point" is flatend, and no more than 4mm thick. The front edges show wear, cominserate with being shot into something such as a wood target. It is of cast cupric alloy. It has the approximate weight of a a ball point pen. I see the most obvious function as a projectile point of some kind. It is simply to small and too light to be used otherwise, IMO.

Ralph

[john roberts]

Ralph,
Your "wood target" speculation may be the key. This might be a target point. The "horns" might be to prevent it from penetrating the target too deeply, making the bolt easier to recover.

[Renatus]

They may not be the clearest pictures in the world but you will find photographs of the reliefs in this book:

http://archive.org/stream/recueilgnralde...1/mode/2up

They are nos. 1679 on p. 442 and 1683 on pp. 443-444.