Research Catalog
Philo Mechanicus : on sieges, translated with introduction and commentary
- Title
- Philo Mechanicus : on sieges, translated with introduction and commentary / David Whitehead.
- Author
- Philo, of Byzantium
- Publication
- Stuttgart : Franz Steiner Verlag, [2016]
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | UG443 .P455 2016g | Off-site |
Holdings
Details
- Additional Authors
- Whitehead, David, 1949-
- Description
- 510 pages; 25 cm.
- Summary
- "Towards the end of the second century BCE Philo of Byzantium, a.k.a. Philo Mechanicus, wrote what is held to be the first Engineering Compendium, in eight or nine parts. Three concern warfare, viewed theoretically: a technical treatise on catapult-design (Belopoiika), and two associated ones which survive only in (lengthy) epitome. United here under the title On Sieges, Paraskeuastika and Poliorketika address broader aspects of siege-warfare. First and primarily, withstanding a siege is the objective: cities must design and build towers, walls and gates in the most suitable way, stockpile and manage food and other strategic commodities, and resist a direct assault by men and machines. Then more briefly the perspective is reversed, with those who wish to conduct such an attack shown how to do so successfully.This is the work's first-ever complete translation into English, preceded by an Introduction on the writer and his work. The Commentary - the first since Garlan's in 1972 - aims to elucidate the multifarious matters arising: issues of text, translation, vocabulary, idiom; themes in the poliorcetic genre; archaeological and other substantive contexts."
- Series Statement
- Alte Geschichte (Stuttgart, Germany)
- Historia (Wiesbaden, Germany). Einzelschriften, 0341-0056 ; Band 243
- Uniform Title
- Alte Geschichte (Stuttgart, Germany)
- Historia (Wiesbaden, Germany). Einzelschriften ; Heft 243.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Note
- Original text in Greek, translation, introduction and commentary in English.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 439-445) and indexes.
- Language (note)
- Text mainly in English, with original passages in Greek.
- ISBN
- 9783515113434
- 3515113436
- 9783515113441 (canceled/invalid)
- 3515113444 (canceled/invalid)
- LCCN
- 9783515113434
- OCLC
- ocn952958339
- 952958339
- SCSB-5863710
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries