The Crossbow and its Many Variations
The crossbow, quite obviously, is a derivative of a bow, and the first mention of it in history is in fact in the Bible. In II Chronicles 26:15, it is stated that King Uzziah, who reigned over the Kingdom of Judah in the eighth century BC, ‘…made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal.’ This would seem to be some sort of a variation on the Roman Ballista, an artillery piece based on the principal of a crossbow.
The typical ballista, developed from an earlier Greek prototype, was used most prominently by the Romans, and it relied on a torsion spring, a slightly different system to a standard crossbow. The functioning pieces of a typical crossbow, however, comprise a horizontal bow-like assembly known as a ‘prod’, which is mount to a stock. The projectiles it shoots are known as bolts, and sometimes quarrels.
The revolutionary effect of the crossbow was that it was easy to make, but more importantly, easy to operate. A traditional archer belonged to an exclusive guild of men trained over a lifetime in strength and accuracy, while a crossbow could be picked up and effectively used by anyone. It also packed a hefty punch, and traditional plate armor was really no protection against it.
Who invented the handheld crossbow is not known, but it originated in East Asia. Common opinion puts its appearance on the Chinese battlefield at about the sixth century BCE. The famous Chinese military tactician Sun Tzu, whose book, The Art of War, first appeared between 500BCE and 300 BCE, makes numerous references to the crossbow. There is also clear evidence that the weapon was used for military purposes during the ‘Warring States’ period, from the second half of the 4th Century BC and onwards.
In Europe, the crossbow first appears in the historical record sometime during the fifth century BCE. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus describes the invention of a mechanical arrow-shooting catapult, called a Katapeltikon, used by a Greek task force in 399 BC. This was a large siege machine, built along the same lines as a Ballista, but significantly larger. The Greeks also fielded an interesting variation of a crossbow in the form of a Gastraphetes, or ‘belly shooter’. The gastraphetes was powered by a composite prod, and it was cocked by a simple but ingenious method of resting the stomach in a concavity at the rear of the stock, and pressing down, which drew back the string.
The Romans later developed the principle further, and the ballista was born. The ballista was a heavy artillery piece, firing either a projective or a large bolt, and designed around a torsion spring using rawhide or sinew, wound while wet, and tighten to an extreme degree when dry. It was a fearsome weapon when deployed in numbers. The more common version of a crossbow was the European, medieval pattern, which also had many variations. It briefly fell out of favor, strangely enough, because of the ease of its use. In 1696 it was banned by the Catholic church simply because it offered the opportunity for a peasant to kill a highborn. It however, remained on the battlefield, and in fact, in selective usage, it is still a weapon of modern war.