Siegecraft - TerpConnect - University of Maryland

Chapter 1
Parangelmata Poliorcetica
17 diaithtikã: Cf. below, 3:49–51 on dietary preparations for cities
under siege, diå . . . br≈sevw . . . ka‹ . . . dia¤thw and the related
scholion on the “epimonidian” compound, derived from Philo Mech.
On the husbanding and distribution of foodstuffs while under siege, cf.
De obsid. 48:12ff.
19 texnolog¤an: For texnologe›n, “to prescribe the rules of an art,”
see Aristotle, Rhetorica 1354b17 and on texnolog¤a as “technical treatise”
see D. A. Russell, Longinus’ On the Sublime (Oxford, 1964), 60 n. on
1:1. The Anon. Byz. here uses it not of a treatise, but of the system used
in such treatises, on which see Basil, Adversus Eunomium libri tres I:9 (PG
29:532C): OÎte går ‡smen texnolog¤aw l°jevn and Iamblichus, De vita
Pythagorica 182: e‰nai d¢ tÚn kairÚn m°xri m°n tinow didaktÒn te ka‹
éparãlogon ka‹ texnolog¤an §pidexÒmenon; see also George the Monk,
Chronicon, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1904; repr. Stuttgart, 1978,
with corrections by P. Wirth), 1:13. Martin renders “la méthode
d’exposition générale,” Schneider “nach der . . . üblichen Ausdruckweise.”
21–22 ésunÆyh . . . ÙnÒmata: The wording is taken directly from the
preface of Apollod. (138:14–15). Nevertheless, it is a consistent part of
the Anon. Byz.’s method to simplify vocabulary (see the Introduction,
5–8).
22 b¤blƒ: See on d°ltƒ at 2:21.
25–28 MÒna . . . paray°menoi: The Anon. Byz. indicates that he has
gathered his added material “from the remaining ” and he
uses, in addition to Apollod., Ath. Mech., Heron, and Philo Mech. extensively
and Biton more sparingly in the text. However, he also adds
clearly contemporary material, for example, the tortoise called laisa (see
below on 2:4) as well as material not found in extant classical sources
(e.g., the wheeled ladder described in chap. 46), which may or may not
be contemporary. See Dain, Tradition, 16 n. 2, for a list of new or otherwise
unattested items. The sentence lacks a main verb.
26–27 §pergasi«n . . . §penyumhmãtvn: The terms (see §penyumhmãtvn
repeated below at 3:7 with tautologi«n and §panalÆcevn) may reflect
an acquaintance, direct or more likely through handbooks, with the
rhetorical system found in the Hermogenic On Invention, in which
§rgas¤a (“a working out”) is a supporting statement to an epicheireme,
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