All Topics  
Gastraphetes

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Gastraphetes
 
 
  Topics Gastraphetes Topic Home

The gastraphetes (from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ?ast?af?t??, English translation
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
: "belly-bow") was a hand-held crossbow
Crossbow

A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a Bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word Ballista, a siege engine resembling a crossbow in mechanism and appearance....
 used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the first century AD by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria . was an ancient Greek mathematics who was a resident of a Roman province ; he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria....
 in his work Belopoeica (Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ?e??p?????, English translation: On Catapult-making), which draws on an earlier account of the famous Greek engineer Ctesibius
Ctesibius

Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius was a Ancient Greece inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps ....
 (fl. 285–222 BC). Heron identifies the gastraphetes as the forerunner of the later catapult
Catapult

A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance?particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines....
, which places its invention some unknown time prior to 421 BC.

irly detailed description and drawing of the gastraphetes appears in Heron's Belopoeica, drawn from the account by the 3rd century BC engineer and inventor Ctesibius.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gastraphetes'
Start a new discussion about 'Gastraphetes'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The gastraphetes (from Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ?ast?af?t??, English translation
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
: "belly-bow") was a hand-held crossbow
Crossbow

A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a Bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word Ballista, a siege engine resembling a crossbow in mechanism and appearance....
 used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the first century AD by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria . was an ancient Greek mathematics who was a resident of a Roman province ; he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria....
 in his work Belopoeica (Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ?e??p?????, English translation: On Catapult-making), which draws on an earlier account of the famous Greek engineer Ctesibius
Ctesibius

Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius was a Ancient Greece inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps ....
 (fl. 285–222 BC). Heron identifies the gastraphetes as the forerunner of the later catapult
Catapult

A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance?particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines....
, which places its invention some unknown time prior to 421 BC.

Description

A fairly detailed description and drawing of the gastraphetes appears in Heron's Belopoeica, drawn from the account by the 3rd century BC engineer and inventor Ctesibius. The weapon was powered by a composite bow
Composite bow

A composite bow is a bow made from disparate materials laminated together, usually applied under tension. Different materials are used in order to take advantage of the properties of each material....
. It was cocked by resting the stomach in a concavity at the rear of the stock and pressing down with all strength. In this way considerably more energy can be summoned up than by using only one arm of the archer as in the hand-bow. There are no attestations through pictures or archaeological finds, but the description by Heron is detailed enough to have allowed modern reconstructions to be made. According to some authors, the dimensions of the gastraphetes may have involved some kind of prop.

A larger version of the gastraphetes were the oxybeles
Oxybeles

The oxybeles was a weapon used by the Ancient Greece starting in 375 BC. The weapon was basically an oversized gastraphetes, a composite bow placed on a stand with a stock and a trigger....
, which were used in siege warfare. These were later supplanted by the early ballista
Ballista

The ballista , plural ballistae, was a weapon developed from earlier Greek weapons. It relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with Torsion springs instead of a prod, the springs consisting of several loops of twisted skeins....
e that later also developed into smaller versions supplanting also the gastraphetes.

Date

According to a long dominant view expressed by E. W. Marsden, the gastraphetes was invented in 399 BC by a team of Greek craftsmen assembled by the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse
Dionysius I of Syracuse

Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder , tyrant of Syracuse, Italy, conquered several cities in Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence in Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the Western Ancient Greece colonies....
. However, recent scholarship has pointed out that the historian Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
 (fl. 1st century BC) actually did not mention the gastraphetes, but was referring to the invention of the "katapeltikon", a mechanical arrow firing catapult
Catapult

A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance?particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines....
. Since the Greek scholar Hero of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria

Hero of Alexandria . was an ancient Greek mathematics who was a resident of a Roman province ; he was also an engineer who was active in his hometown of Alexandria....
 (fl. 1st c. AD) states in his Belopoeica that stand-mounted mechanical artillery such as the katapeltikon was inspired by the earlier hand-held gastraphetes, the invention of handheld crossbows into Greek warfare must have thus occurred some unknown time before 399 BC.

The terminus ante quem may be more precisely defined as being before 421 BC, since another Greek author, Biton (fl. 2nd c. BC), whose reliability has been positively reevaluated by recent scholarship, credits two advanced forms of the gastraphetes to a certain Zopyros. This Zopyros was probably an Pythagorean
Pythagoreanism

Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metaphysics beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were much influenced by mathematics and probably a very inspirational source for Plato and Platonism....
 engineer from southern Italy
Taranto

Taranto is a coastal city in Puglia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
. He may have designed his stand-mounted bow-machines on the occasion of the sieges of Cumae
Cumae

Cumae is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy and is perhaps most famous as the seat of the Cumaean Sibyl....
 and Milet between 421 BC and 401 BC, thus marking the date by which the the archetypical gastraphetes must have already been known.

Other ancient crossbows

Besides the gastraphetes, the ancient world knew a variety of mechanical hand-held weapons similar to the later medieval
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 crossbow. The exact terminology is a subject of continuing scholarly debate.
  • Greek and Roman authors like Vegetius
    Vegetius

    Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus was a writer of the Western Roman Empire. Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what he tells us in his two surviving works: Epitoma rei militaris , and the lesser-known Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae, a guide to veterinary medicine....
     note repeatedly the use of arrow firing weapons such as arcuballista and manuballista respectively cheiroballistra. While most scholars agree that one or more of these terms refer to handheld mechanical weapons, there exist disagreement whether these were flexion bows or torsion powered like the recent Xanten
    Xanten

    Xanten is a historic town in the North Rhine-Westphalia state of Germany, located in the district of Wesel . Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park , its mediaeval picturesque city centre with Xanten Cathedral and many museums, its large man-made lake for various watersport activities as well as high standard of living....
     find.
  • The Roman
    Ancient Rome

    Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
     commander Arrian
    Arrian

    File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
     (ca. 86 - after 146) records in his Tactica Roman cavalry training for firing some mechanical handheld weapon from horseback.
  • Sculptural reliefs from Roman Gaul
    Gaul

    Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
     depict the use of crossbows in hunting scenes. The specimen are remarkably similar to the later medieval crossbow, including the typical nut lock.


Sources

  • E. W. Marsden: "Greek and Roman artillery, historical development", Oxford: Clarendon, 1969
  • H. Diels, E. Schramm, ed. "Herons 'Belopoiika'", (Abhandlungen der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosoph.-hist. Kl. 2.) Berlin: Reimer, 1918, Chapter 7
  • J. G. Landels: "Engineering in the Ancient World", London: Chatto & Windus, 1978
  • (Retrieved 7 January 2007)
  • H.M.Schellenberg: "Anmerkungen zu Heron von Alexandria und seinem Werk über den Geschützbau", in: Schellenberg, H.M. / Hirschmann, V. E./ Krieckhaus, A. (edd.): "A Roman Miscellany. Essays in Honour of Anthony R. Birley on his Seventieth Birthday", Gdansk 2008, pp.92-130


External links