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Chapter IX
A Summary of the History of the Crossbow
Fig. 17. - Crossbowmen Killing Deer and Wild Boars.
The Romans employed a large machine on wheels that was wound up by a
windlass turned by several men, and which was made on the same principle
as a crossbow. They also appear to have used the ordinary small crossbow
carried by hand, even so long ago as the fourth century. Good evidence
of this is to be found in Vegetius.1 This author, in his treatise
on military art, dedicated to Valentinian II. about 385, alludes to the
crossbow as being a manual weapon assigned to light-armed troops, the description
of which he omits, as it is so well known. Two Roman bas-reliefs, evidently
older than the fourth century, described in 1831 by M. Aymard, and belonging
to the
1 ' Erant tragularii, qui ad manuballistas
vel arcuballistas dirigebant sagittas,' Book II., Chapter 15 - with them
were the javelin men, who from their bows in hand or crossbows directed
their arrows. |
