(13*) As Atheneus says the thicknes of the ram was two 
feet, Meibonius supposes that, instead of crasitudine pedati, 
Vitruvius wrote crassitudine bipedali. But Heron agrees 
with Vitruvius in allowing the thickness but one foot: 
and all these authors agree in its measure at the head, 
where, according to Heron and Vitruvius, it was dimi¬ 
stata- 
nished a quarter of a foot in breadth and thicknes. This 
therefore, together with the impropriety of expressing the 
thickness to be greater than the breadth, renders it pro- 
bable that the error is not in Vitruvius, but in Atheneus. 
Both Heron and Atheneus say the length of the ram 
was 120.cubits. 
BOOK. 
teum (W), fashioned like a little tower, wherein two soldiers could, without danger, stand to 
observe and give notice of the enemies attempts. The length of the ram was feet CVI.::: the 
breadth at bottom, a foot and a palm:: the thickness a foot ::: It was diminished at the 
head, being in breadth I. foot;: and in thickness S.:—. This ram had also a rostrum (V) of 
hardened iron, such as war ships usually have; and from this rostrum extended four iron 
bars (Y) about fifteen feet, which were fixed to the timber: from the head also to the lower 
end of the beam were stretched four ropes, eight digits in thickness, bound in the same manner 
as the mast of a ship is bound from the poop to the prow; and these ropes were fastened 
with transversal ropes, a foot and a palm distant from each other, and then the whole ram was 
covered with raw hides : also at the upper ends (T) of the ropes by which it was suspended, 
were four iron chains, and these were also covered with raw hides. 
must allude to the axles (that supported the ram) which 
Vitruvius has just mentioned, and not to the men who 
worked the ram; for, snould the pluteum have been placed 
just over those men's heads, it must have been an impedi¬ 
ment to the ram's motion. 
(14*) « Ex ipso rostro laminae ferreae quatuor circiter 
« pedum XV." 
Perrault has transated this passage thus: et From the 
et said head proceed four plates of iron, about four feet 
« long.” And by his notes it appears that he has lup¬ 
poled the word quatuor to relate to pedun, making the 
numerals XV. to signify 1, of a foot more: so that he seems 
not to have been aware that he has used the same word 
quatuor twice in the same sentence; for he has applied it 
first to lamina ferree, saying four iron plates; and then 
again to pedum, saying four feet. 
Galiani notices Perraul's improper application of the 
word quatuor to pedum ; but has not observed that he has 
used it twice, by applyingit also to laminae ferreae. As it 
has been the constant practice of Vitruvius throughout 
the whole work, and often repeated in this chapter, to 
express the quantity or number by numeral letters placed 
after the name of the integer, there can be no reason to 
doubt that in this instance (which is analogous to all the 
rest) he follows the same method. 
These numerals XV. therefore undoubtedly relate to 
pedum, and express the number of feet the iron bars were 
in length; as quatuor does to laminae ferreae, to denote the 
number of those iron bars: and, to confirm this, both 
Atheneus and Heron agree in expressing the number of 
the iron bars to be four; and their length to be ten 
cubits, which is XV. feet exactly. 
(15*) This passage excites an idea that the ropes ex¬ 
tended from the top of the arrectaria to each end of the 
ram, the two ends of which answering to the poop and 
prow of thé vessel, and the arrectaria to the mast. But 
the words of Heron and Atheneus do not encourage 
such an idea; they only import that the ram was girt 
around with the ropes, which, according to them, were 
in number three, although Vitruvius writes four. 
(16*) Atheneus and Heron describe these transversal 
bands to be applied only at the middle part of the ram, 
and the number of them to be four; so forming three 
intervals, from which the four ropes TX, that supported 
the ram, extended up to the turned axles before named 
at the top of the arrectaria: thus having some resemblance 
to the manner in which the mast of a ship is bound from 
head to stern. 
(175) Vitruvius has not clearly expressed what ropes 
he here means; but we learn from Atheneus that they 
were the ropes T X that hung down from the before- 
Hamed axles, and supported the ram. Atheneus adds, 
that the chains with which the tops of them were bound 
were covered wich raw hides, so that they could not be