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The Seventeenth Book of Diodorus: in Two Parts
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112chapter 113chapter 114chapter 115chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118
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The Tyrians had bronze workers and machinists, and contrived
ingenious counter-measures.1 Against the projectiles from the catapults they made wheels
with many spokes, and, setting these to rotate by a certain device, they destroyed some of the
missiles and deflected others, and broke the force of all. They caught the balls from the stone
throwers in soft and yielding materials and so weakened their force.
1 These "counter-measures" do not appear elsewhere in the sources, and Tarn (Alexander the Great, 2.120 f.) may be right in tracing them ultimately to a technical military manual. It is not impossible that they may be insertions of Diodorus himself and were lacking in his source; Diodorus was interested in curiosities. The wheels appear again below (chap. 45.3) in somewhat different form. They are otherwise unknown in antiquity (Tarn, p. 121). Apparently they were made to whirl in front of the men on the walls, giving them observation through the spokes but protecting them from missiles. The translation here offers difficulties; "wheels divided by thick diaphragms" or "with many barriers at close intervals." Possibly the diaphragms were screens between the wheels.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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