BATTERING RAM (Lat. (pies, ram)

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 531 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAR-BEC

BATTERING RAM (Lat. (pies, ram) , a military

engine

ENGINE
ENGINE (Lat. ingenium)

used before the invention of cannon, for beating down the walls of besieged fortresses. It consisted of a

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

heavy beam of timber, armed at the extremity with

iron

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

fashioned something like the head of a ram. In its simplest form the beam was carried in the hands of the soldiers, who assailed the walls with it by main force. The improved ram was composed of a longer beam, in some cases extending to 12o ft., shod with

iron

IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

at one end, and suspended, either by the middle or from two points, from another beam laid across two posts. This is the kind described by Josephus as having been used at the siege of Jerusalem (B.J. iii. 7. 19). The ram was shielded from the missiles of the besieged by a penthouse (vinea) or other overhead

protection

PROTECTION

. It was often mounted on wheels, which greatly facilitated its operations. A hundred soldiers at a time, and sometimes even a greater number, were employed to

work

WORK

it, and the parties were relieved in constant succession. No

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

could resist the continued application of the ram, and the greatest efforts were always made to destroy it by various means, such as dropping heavy stones on the head of the ram and on the roof of the penthouse; another method being to seize the ram head with grapnels and then haul it up to a

vertical

VERTICAL (from Lat. vertex, highest point)

position by suitable windlasses on the

wall

WALL (O. Eng. weal, weall, Mid. Eng. wal, wane, adapted from Lat. vallum, rampart; the
original
- ORIGINAL
O. Eng. word for a wall was wag or tenth)
WALL, RICHARD (1694-1778)

of the fortress. Sometimes the besieged ran countermines under the ram pent-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

; this if successful would cause the whole

engine

ENGINE
ENGINE (Lat. ingenium)

to fall into the excavation. In medieval warfare the low penthouse, called cat, was generally employed with some form of ram.

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