eBook - PDF

Philo Mechanicus: "On Sieges"

Name: Philo Mechanicus: "On Sieges"
Author: David Whitehead

Translated with Introduction and Commentary

David Whitehead,

514 pages
English
PDF
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - PDF

Philo Mechanicus: "On Sieges"

Translated with Introduction and Commentary

David Whitehead,

About this book

Towards the end of the second century BCE Philo of Byzantium, a.k.a. Philo Mechanicus, wrote what is held to be the first Engineering Compendium, in eight or nine parts. Three concern warfare, viewed theoretically: a technical treatise on catapult-design (Belopoiika), and two associated ones which survive only in (lengthy) epitome. United here under the title On Sieges, Paraskeuastika and Poliorketika address broader aspects of siege-warfare. First and primarily, withstanding a siege is the objective: cities must design and build towers, walls and gates in the most suitable way, stockpile and manage food and other strategic commodities, and resist a direct assault by men and machines. Then more briefly the perspective is reversed, with those who wish to conduct such an attack shown how to do so successfully.

This is the work's first-ever complete translation into English, preceded by an Introduction on the writer and his work. The Commentary – the first since Garlan's in 1972 – aims to elucidate the multifarious matters arising: issues of text, translation, vocabulary, idiom; themes in the poliorcetic genre; archaeological and other substantive contexts.

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Yes, you can access Philo Mechanicus: "On Sieges" by David Whitehead in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Ancient History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.