01-19-2018, 04:31 PM
Josiah Ober: Early Artillery Towers: Messenia, Boiotia, Attica, Megarid, AJA 1987 is an admirable piece of scholarship, but what irritates me is that he never considers the possibility that the large rectangular windows high in the towers were meant for javelin throwers or slingers, not for the employment of early catapults. These kind of troops, if stationed inside a tower, could hurl their missiles better from embrasures than tight windows, I venture to say.
Strictly speaking, these embrasures may even be meant for archers despite the lack of protection they offered against enemy fire. What Ober fails to demonstrate is that the more advanced arrow slits already existed in Greek fortifications before these towers were built in the 4th century BC (I for one haven't found any evidence for them yet). It might be therefore possible that Greek engineers built at first big windows for archers until they figured out that slits were much more suitable. Since Polybios credits Archimedes with the introduction of arrowslits as late as the Roman siege of Syracuse (around 212 BC), this scenario is not even wildly implausible. What do you think?
Strictly speaking, these embrasures may even be meant for archers despite the lack of protection they offered against enemy fire. What Ober fails to demonstrate is that the more advanced arrow slits already existed in Greek fortifications before these towers were built in the 4th century BC (I for one haven't found any evidence for them yet). It might be therefore possible that Greek engineers built at first big windows for archers until they figured out that slits were much more suitable. Since Polybios credits Archimedes with the introduction of arrowslits as late as the Roman siege of Syracuse (around 212 BC), this scenario is not even wildly implausible. What do you think?
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
