CATAPULT

, Catapulta, a military engine, much used by the ancients for throwing huge stones, and sometimes large darts and javelins, 12, 15, or even 18 feet long, on the enemy. It is sometimes confounded with the Ballista, which is more peculiarly adapted for throwing stones; some authors making them the same, and others different.

The catapulta, which it is said was invented by the Syrians, consisted of two huge timbers, like masts of ships, placed against each other, and bent by an engine for the purpose; these being suddenly unbent again by the stroke of a hammer, threw the javelins with prodigious force. Its structure and the manner of working it are described by Vitruvius; and a figure of it is also given by Perrault. M. Folard asserts that the catapult made infinitely more disorder in the ranks than our cannon charged with iron balls. See Vitruv. Archit. lib. x. cap. 15 and 18; and Perr. notes on the same; also Rivius, pa. 597.

Josephus takes notice of the surprising effects of these engines, and says, that the stones thrown out of them, of a hundred weight or more, beat down the battlements, knocked the angles off the towers, and would level a whole file of men from one end to the other, were the phalanx ever so deep.

See plate V, fig. 3 and 4, for two forms of the catapult, the one for throwing darts and javelins, the other for stones.