05-17-2011, 09:41 PM
Quote:... the author is speaking of a self-ignition bolts:
Then, returning to Delminium, he hurled sticks of wood, two cubits long, covered with flax and smeared with pitch and sulfur, from catapults into the town. These caught fire from friction and, flying in the air like torches, wherever they fell caused a conflagration, so that the greater part of the town was burned. This was the end of the war waged by Figulus against the Dalmatians.
The sentence in question actually reads: "These were kindled by the rush ...", which translator Horace White sensibly glossed as "These were fanned into flame by the draught ..." It seems that they were simply incendiary arrows of the usual sort. (Sorry to spoil a good story! :wink: )
