Was artillery used in the field?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

If anyone has read Steven Pressfields 'Tides of War', this device is described as being used in some, gory, detail! My first intro to it!

[Endre Fodstad]

But if you were to roll this up to a fortification, it would scare the crap out of anyone trying to defend it, if it didn't turn them into toast!

Or if they didn't drop a couple of big rocks, water, oil, lime, or some other fun stuff, into the cauldron, frying of boiling the crew like ancient KFC! Or - I know! Block its path with something! Or pepper the bellows area with arrows - a few of those into the leather bellows'll really reduce their draft a bit.

I have to admit that such a device always struck me as sort of fanciful. It reminds me of reading the King's Mirror and looking at the list of amazingly interesting names of siege and ship warfare equipment the author lists - while it might certainly sound fun to have a big beam on top of a castle wall with a hook at the end that can pick up individual storming soldiers and fling them into the air, the practicality of such devices sounds....doubtful (check out http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirr ... html#XXXIX and http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirr ... tml#XXXVII - the literal translation of "war-beam" in the naval section is "crooked shield-jotun/troll -whatever the heck that means)

[Iulus]

Something I accidentally found:

FLAVI VEGETI RENATI VIRI INLUSTRIS COMITIS
EPITOMA REI MILITARIS LIBER II,25,line 4-5:

"Non solum autem [Carroballistae] castra defendunt, uerum etiam in campo post aciem grauis armaturae ponuntur..."

That means: The Carroballistae were not only used to defend the fort,but were in battle even installed behind heavy infantry.

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Something I accidentally found:

FLAVI VEGETI RENATI VIRI INLUSTRIS COMITIS
EPITOMA REI MILITARIS LIBER II,25,line 4-5:

"Non solum autem [Carroballistae] castra defendunt, uerum etiam in campo post aciem grauis armaturae ponuntur..."

That means: The Carroballistae were not only used to defend the fort,but were in battle even installed behind heavy infantry.

Excellent citation. Thanks. What time/campaign is this in reference to? I especially like it because it validates how I intend to employ my carroballista some day. if only I can find some grunts willing to stand in a line while I fire bolts over their heads.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

But if you were to roll this up to a fortification, it would scare the crap out of anyone trying to defend it, if it didn't turn them into toast!

Or if they didn't drop a couple of big rocks, water, oil, lime, or some other fun stuff, into the cauldron, frying of boiling the crew like ancient KFC! Or - I know! Block its path with something! Or pepper the bellows area with arrows - a few of those into the leather bellows'll really reduce their draft a bit.

I have to admit that such a device always struck me as sort of fanciful. It reminds me of reading the King's Mirror and looking at the list of amazingly interesting names of siege and ship warfare equipment the author lists - while it might certainly sound fun to have a big beam on top of a castle wall with a hook at the end that can pick up individual storming soldiers and fling them into the air, the practicality of such devices sounds....doubtful (check out http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirr ... html#XXXIX and http://www.mediumaevum.com/75years/mirr ... tml#XXXVII - the literal translation of "war-beam" in the naval section is "crooked shield-jotun/troll -whatever the heck that means)

I could be wrong, but I believe it was also mentioned by Xenophon but don't quote me on that!

[Iulus]

@P. Clodius Secundus: 4th century AD.Vegetius wrote his "EPITOMA REI MILITARIS" in Mediolanum (Milan),so with no reference to a specific campaign,but to the military regulations of Augustus,Trajan and Hadrian,as he says.Further sources are Cato,Aulus Cornelius Celsus,Frontinus and Paternus.

[Endre Fodstad]

I could be wrong, but I believe it was also mentioned by Xenophon but don't quote me on that!

In Anabasis or the Hellenica? I can't remember that. It would, however, not surprise me greatly; the medieval and early modern period's respect for the written word led to a lot of copying of bad earlier ideas as well as good earlier ideas!

[D B Campbell]

I could be wrong, but I believe it was also mentioned by Xenophon but don't quote me on that!

From memory -- I can't get Perseus to work at the moment -- the only "machines" mentioned by Xenophon (besides the Persian ones in the Cyropaedia) are the ones whose path to Piraeus in 403 BC was blocked by dumping wagon-sized boulders on the approach road (Hell. 2.4.27). Probably some kind of siege towers?