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Reviewed Article:

Traction Trebuchet

“...Magno cum pondere nostri
Tigna parant, quorum calibis dens summa peragrat,
Machina quo citius Danum quisset terebrari.
Conficiunt longis aeque lignis geminatis
Mangana quae proprio vulgi libitu vocitantur;
Saxa quibus jaciunt ingentia, sed jaulando
Allidunt humiles scaenas gentis truculentae.”
(Waquet 1942, p. 42)

“With mighty weight our men prepare great beams
Of wood, whose outmost point is pierced by tooth of steel,
To swiftly penetrate the Danish siege machine.
With doubled beams of equal length they fabricate 
What in the vulgar tongue are known as “mangonels”
From these great stones are hurled and while they cast them down 
They crush the humble platforms of the savage race.”
(Adams and Rigg 2004, p. 34)