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Biton (writer)
Biton of Pergamon ( gr, Βίτων) was an ancient Greek writer and engineer, who lived in the second or third century BC. Only two of his works are known: a lost book on optics, entitled ''Optics'', and an extant short treatise on siege machines, ''Construction of War Machines and Catapults'' ( grc, Κατασκευαὶ πολεμικω̑ν ὄργάνων καὶ καταπαλτικω̑ν).Simon Hornblower, "Biton", in Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth (eds.), ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd rev. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005). The Greek may be transliterated ''Kataskeuai polemikon organon kai katapaltikon''. The military treatise is dedicated to a king named Attalus ( grc, Ἄτταλος), evidently a king of Pergamon, either Attalus I (241–197) or Attalus II (159–38). Some scholars have suggested, based on internal evidence, that the text should date to 156–55.Francesco Fiorucci, "Biton of Pergamon", in Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic period (), and the Classical period (). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language. From the Hellenistic period (), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regarded as a separate historical stage, although its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek, of which Attic Greek developed into Koine. Dia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helepolis
Helepolis ( el, ἑλέπολις, meaning: "Taker of Cities") is the Greek name for a movable siege tower. The most famous was that invented by Polyidus of Thessaly, and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens, for the Siege of Rhodes (305 BC). Descriptions of it were written by Diodorus Siculus, Vitruvius, Plutarch, and in the Athenaeus Mechanicus. Description The Helepolis was essentially a large tapered tower, with each side about 130 feet (41.1 m) high, and 65 feet (20.6 m) wide that was manually pushed into battle. It rested on eight wheels, each 15 feet (4.6 m) high and also had casters, to allow lateral movement as well as direct. The three exposed sides were rendered fireproof with iron plates, and stories divided the interior, connected by two broad flights of stairs, one for ascent and one for descent. The machine weighed 160 tons, and required 3,400 men working in relays to move it, 200 turning a large capstan driving the whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People From Pergamon
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Military Engineers
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian language, Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already Exponential growth, exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek Military Writers
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mnemosyne (journal)
''Mnemosyne'' is an academic journal of classical studies published by Brill Publishers. It was established in 1852 as a journal of textual criticism. It publishes articles mainly in English, but also in French, German, and Latin. The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents, and MLA International Bibliography The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st .... External links * Classics journals Publications established in 1852 Multilingual journals Brill Publishers academic journals {{classics-journal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hero Of Alexandria
Hero of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἥρων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, ''Heron ho Alexandreus'', also known as Heron of Alexandria ; 60 AD) was a Greece, Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in his native city of Alexandria, Roman Egypt. He is often considered the greatest experimenter of antiquity and his work is representative of the Hellenistic civilization, Hellenistic scientific tradition. Hero published a well-recognized description of a Steam engine, steam-powered device called an ''aeolipile'' (sometimes called a "Hero engine"). Among his most famous inventions was a windmill, windwheel, constituting the earliest instance of Wind power, wind harnessing on land. He is said to have been a follower of the atomism, atomists. In his work ''Mechanics'', he described pantographs. Some of his ideas were derived from the works of Ctesibius. In mathematics he is mostly remembered for Heron's formula, a way to calculate the area of a triangle using only the lengths of it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaling Ladder
{{Unreferenced, date=May 2007 Escalade is the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders. Escalade was a prominent feature of sieges in ancient and medieval warfare, and though it is no longer common in modern warfare, escalade technologies are still developed and used in certain tactical applications. Overview Escalade consists of attacking soldiers advancing to the base of a wall, setting ladders, and climbing to engage the defending forces. Though very simple and direct, it was also one of the most dangerous options available; escalade would generally be conducted in the face of arrow fire from the battlements, and the defenders would naturally attempt to push ladders away from the wall. Heated or incendiary substances such as boiling water, heated sand, and pitch-coated missiles were sometimes poured on attacking soldiers. This made it difficult for attackers to reach the top of the wall, and those that did would often quickly be overwhelmed by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sambuca (siege Engine)
The sambuca ( grc, σαμβύκη) was a ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heracleides of Tarentum and was first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of Syracuse in 213 BC. Polybius describes usage of the machine: As well as these vessels he had eight quinqueremes in pairs. Each pair had had their oars removed, one on the port and the other on the starboard side, and then these had been lashed together on the sides thus left bare. On these double vessels, rowed by the outer oars of each of the pair, they brought up under the walls some engines called "Sambucae", the construction of which was as follows: A ladder was made four feet broad, and of a height to reach the top of the wall from the place where its foot had to rest; each side of the ladder was protected by a railing, and a covering or pent-house was added overhead. It was then placed so that its foot rested across the sides of the lashed-together vessels, which touched ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gastraphetes
The gastraphetes ( grc, γαστραφέτης, , belly-releaser), also called belly bow or belly shooter, was a hand-held crossbow used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the 1st century AD by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his work ''Belopoeica'', which draws on an earlier account of the famous Greek engineer Ctesibius ( fl. 285–222 BC). Heron identifies the gastraphetes as the forerunner of the later catapult, which places its invention some unknown time prior to c. 420 BC. Unlike later Roman and medieval crossbows, spanning the weapon was not done by pulling up the string, but by pushing down an elaborate slider mechanism. Description A fairly detailed description and drawing of the gastraphetes appears in Heron's ''Belopoeica'' (Ancient Greek Βελοποιικά, English translation: ''On arrow-making''), drawn from the account by the 3rd-century BC engineer Ctesibius. The weapon was powered by a composite bow. It was cocked by resting the stomach in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties. Most optical phenomena can be accounted for by using the classical electromagnetic description of light. Complete electromagnetic descriptions of light are, however, often difficult to apply in practice. Practical optics is usually done using simplified models. The most common of these, geometric optics, treats light as a collection of rays that travel in straight lines and bend when they pass through or reflect from surfaces. Physical optics is a more comprehensive model of light, which includes wave effects such as diffraction and interference that cannot be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithobolos
A lithobolos ( el, λιθοβόλος) refers to any mechanical artillery weapon used and/or referred to as a stone thrower in ancient warfare. Typically this referred to engines that propel a stone along a flat track with two rigid bow arms powered by torsion (twisted cord), in particular all sizes of palintonon. However, Charon of Magnesia referred to his flexion (bow) stone-thrower engine, a gastraphetes shooting 5–6 mina (), as a lithobolos; Isidoros of Abydos reportedly built a larger version shooting . Also, the euthytonon, a single-arm torsion catapult, was referred to by contemporaries as a stone-thrower, as was its Roman evolution the onager. Stone-throwers of the same class looked alike, with their stone capacity scaling mostly with overall size. Machine dimensions can be approximated mathematically based on the equivalent spring diameter. History Buddhist texts record Magadhan Emperor Ajatashatru as having commissioned stone-throwers (''mahashilakantaka'') in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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