XV
THE DAY BEGAN with excitement, Ephippus almost bouncing as he supervised the trial. This was the culmination of many long days of work since he had first rushed into the principia shouting, ‘I’ve worked it out, I’ve worked it out!’
Ferox had never seen the man so animated before, or indeed so ready to chatter. Sabinus and Dionysius had exchanged glances, while the nearby soldiers had adopted the wooden expressions that suggested they were trying not to laugh.
‘It’s a monâkon,’ the Syracusan had shouted so loud that his voice echoed round the courtyard. Heads appeared at several windows. ‘A monâkon! Just think of that.’
‘One-armed?’ Dionysius at least reassured Ferox that his guess was right. ‘I fear that I am still at a loss, my dear fellow.’
Ephippus regained some control as he realised that he was now the centre of attention and his nervousness tried to reassert itself. ‘My apologies. It is an engine. Philon of Byzantium writes of them, as do others, though no one for hundreds of years. I’ve never seen one, nor even a picture, but that is surely what it is. Thank you once again for the loan of Philon’s book.’
‘Did not even know I had it,’ Sabinus assured him. ‘Did you notice, sir?’
‘Geometry has always given me a headache,’ Ferox replied. He had read a fair few of the scrolls from Sabinus’ little library, but had struggled with anything talking about measures and ratios and set those aside. Thankfully it seemed that Ephippus had discovered something useful – or at least that was what he must hope, while he waited for the engineer to get to the point.
‘Geometry.’ The Syracusan was shaking his head. ‘Not geometry, my lord…’ He seemed genuinely puzzled to encounter someone so lacking in basic understanding and yet given a post of authority. ‘You must come and see!’ he shouted again and scurried away.
Ferox chuckled. ‘Well, I suppose if we must, we must.’
They followed the engineer to the granaries. In the best traditions of the army, the shells of the two that had burned and the remnants of the third had been thoroughly demolished, leaving an odd patch of open ground in the fort. Ephippus’ wonder was in the remaining building given over to Dacian engines. Ferox had not been there for some time, and was impressed at how much more space there was. Naso and his men had done well, aided since he arrived by Ephippus, and had managed to get a fair few of the ballistae working again. The Sicilian was now standing with great pride by one of the tall cranes.
‘So that’s what it is,’ Sabinus said, voicing the words before Ferox had a chance.
‘You see it is really a lot like one of the old staff slings. A one-arm engine rather than a two-armed like all the others. Isis knows how the Dacians knew how to make it. Advice from one of the cities on the inner sea, I suppose. I really wonder who and what plans they used. As you can see, this cranks down and is held under tension of the sinew and ropes, and you can adjust the washers so that it lobs high or low. Of course, it is not easy to aim, for you have to move the whole frame and cannot pivot at all, but then the force produced…’ It was a while before Ephippus realised that his audience had ceased to follow him.
‘Apart from its historical interest, I take it there is a reason for bringing us here,’ Ferox asked as patiently as he could.
Ephippus blinked at him, mouth hanging open and giving his face a fish-like quality. ‘You told me that you wanted something that could shoot as far as the bridge. I think that this may be the answer.’ He smiled as he saw their renewed interest. ‘That is if I can get them to work. They are in a bit of a state.’
That had been ten days ago and since then they had been busy. On several nights it had taken a direct order to send the engineer to his bed, for if he was not in the workshops, he was outside measuring and surveying, or indoors with the beads of his abacus clicking back and forth and his stylus scratching away on writing tablets. One of the machines was in a dreadful state, the other only a little better, and it was soon decided to strip all that was useful from the first. Other parts had to be made, which in turn required exact measurement and more than a little guesswork for the manual was vague on many points. After a few days Sabinus took charge of a work party building a platform extending back from the rampart about twenty paces to the left of the porta praetoria, because Ephippus informed them that the machine would need to be raised up.
‘How about a tower?’ Dionysius had suggested.
Ephippus dismissed the idea. ‘No. We could not build one that was high enough and strong enough.’
When the machine was pronounced ready, Ferox could understand why. It was bulkier than any ballista he had ever seen, with a rectangular frame of big, squared off beams as its base. About a third of a way back from the front was a solid upright, heavily padded and with supports joining on to the front of the frame to give it more strength, and just behind it the great metal washers. Now that he had looked – and had it explained to him plenty of times – Ferox could see that this was like one side of an ordinary ballista, whether a light scorpio or one of the big stone throwers. The only difference was that this was on its side, running between the two long sides of the frame. From it sprouted the high beam to which Ephippus had fitted what for all the world was just like a giant sling. A heavy rope hooked onto a catch on the beam, allowing it to be cranked down and held by a second cross-beam near the back, turned by a big wooden windlass worked by levers. A rachet prevented this from spinning back as the levers were lifted out and moved to the next socket.
‘You really wouldn’t want that lot going off without warning,’ Naso assured him. Like many others he had taken more and more interest in the machine as the days passed.
‘Some men just like machines,’ Ferox told Claudia when she asked why so many kept wandering down to see what was happening and whether they could help. ‘Machines are straightforward and do not get mad at you.’
‘Huh!’
Eventually Ephippus tested the mechanism under a low tension and was satisfied, so that they could begin the major task of moving the monâkon to the rampart. The engineer had designed a cart with a wide, flat platform, and cranes to help lift the engine onto it, but even so fifty men were needed to haul on the ropes. ‘I wondered about fitting the thing with wheels of its own, but am worried that it might roll back when we shoot.’
Five pairs of oxen pulled the cart, and men pushed and made sure that the wheels did not bog down as the weight pushed them into the packed grit on the road surface. Sabinus sighed at the sight of the deep trails ruining the previously flat surface. ‘I guess we have another task for a work party,’ Ferox told him.
‘The men will be delighted,’ Sabinus replied with heavy sarcasm. ‘Let’s just hope this demonic device actually works.’
‘We’ll soon see.’
Ephippus had ordered that the platform end in a ramp, and had made the slope as gentle as was possible while still permitting people to pass this section of the intervallum. Ferox had refused the engineer’s eager request to knock down a couple of barrack blocks to make more room. Posts were driven deep into the rampart so that an array of blocks, ropes and pulleys could be secured, with rollers prepared to ease the catapult as it was drawn upwards.