The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1917-01-12
WEAPONS OF WAR
Deadly Devices Used by Warriors
In Ancient Times.
THE JAVELINS OF CAESAR.

They Turned the Tide ct Battle In one
of His Gallo Campsisns-Ths Fa-
mous Greek Wet Fire and the First
Use Of Gunpowder and Cannon.
Reviewing the history Of warfare
among civilized nations" says Geo
graphic Society Bulletin, lone of the
earliest engines of destruction whose
fame has been perpetuated on the
pages of legendary epic was the great
wooden horse which the crafty Ulysses
left on the plains of Ilium and which
the TroJans believed to be an offering
sacred to the goddess Athena. Coun-
seled by the false Simon, the TrOjans
RACED their walls in order that the
| gift of the Greeks might be brought
into the city. After nighfall the war
riors hidden inside the wooden animal
crept out, threw open the gates Of the
city and admitted their companions,
thus bringing abons the destruction of
the city OF Pliam and wreaking venge-
ance upon the people who had shell
tered Paris and the fair but false
Helen of Troy.
AN engine of war which emerges
from the clopd of legend and takes
its place among historical actualities
was that employed by Alexander the
Great In his seven months siege of
the famous PhOenicjan metropolis,
Tyre. This ancient city was strongly
I, situated on an island, and as there
were no long range catapults in the
fourth century before the Christian
era, Alexander conceived the plan of
building mole or causeway from the
mainland to the island. This engi-
neering enterprise was hampered by
the Tyrians, who launched blazing
ships against the assailRnts as they
sunk piles to hold in place the rock
| and debris that formed a roadway
over which the army was to march.
In order to protect his construction
corps Alexander devised an engine
Of war, great towers covered with
green hides. These were set up as
shields against the floating flames of
the enemy, and the result was one of
the memorable victories in Alexan-
der's conquest Of the eastern world.
l "One Of the simplest and yet one Of
the most effective inventions Of an
cient times WIS the javelin with a
point Of soft iron employed by Julius
Caesar in one of his Gallo wars. The
Roman DICTIONARIES hurled these weap-
ons against the shields of their enc
mics. The iron head penetrated the
outer coverings of bulls hide, but fat
tened out against the hard wood or
metal back of the shield, and thus
became hooked to this protector. The
shanks of the dangling javelins so
impeded the movements of the bar
barian soldiers that they were forced
either to throw away their shields and
fight uncovered against the Romans
or else stop long enough "a fatal de-
lay in their advance) to disencumber
themselves from this unique weapon,
which may properly be called the
dumdum plum, the progenitor Of the
soft nose or dumdum bullets of today.
Greek fire is n term which has been
applied to various compounds through
a succession of centuries going as far
back as 424 B. c., when at the siege of
|
pitch and charcoal was placed against
the walls of the city, ignited and the
flames intensified by a bellows attach
ed to hollow tree trunk. The most
: famous of the Greek fires, however,
, was that invented by the architect
, Callinicus during the reign of Constan-
tine Pogonatus. This particular engine
OF destruction was known as wet fire
on account of its property of bursting
Z into flame when wetted. Thrown from
siphons, 1t fell upon the ships of the
Saracens, causing them to burst into
: flames. and thus Constantinople was
the time being (66S A. D..
Probably more farreaching in its
effect than any other engine of war
was the introduction of gunpowder on
: the battlefield. 1t was one of the most
I potent factors contributing to the over
throw of the great feudal system. for
1t destroyed the superiority of the ar
mored knight over the yeoman foot SOL
der and, as Carlyle rightly said, 1T
made all men OF the same height Fol
lowing the use Of gunpowder in small
arms came the invention and develop
1 ment of the cannon, a weapon which
t was employed with destructive effect
e against the walls of Constantinople
when this historic city finally fell into
the hands Of the Mohammedans In
D 1853.
: 1.-THE aeroplane, the Zeppelin and the
= submarine have been developed grad
, ually in times of peace preparatory for
= war and are the products of many
minds. Not so the ironclad Merrimac
] and the turreted Monitor, which ap-
$ peared suddenly and almost sImulta-
: neously on the horizon Of naval war
fare during the American war"