Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde : FeRA
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The remains of the ancient Roman town, crossed by the Flaminia road and lapped by a bend of the Tiber, are located in a natural landscape of significant beauty, perfect synthesis of archaeology and nature that remained unchanged throughout centuries. Excavations were conducted here from a very early period, especially from 1776 to 1784, when a great quantity of material was removed. The archaeological excavations carried out in Otricoli in the second half of the Seventeenth century together with discoveries in Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae and other cities of ancient Italy, contributed during the Neoclassical period to the rediscovery of classical ideals in art and architecture, partly already rediscovered during Humanism and the Renaissance in Italy.
The paper proposes a comprehensive analysis of the paragraph which Biton, in his work known under the title Construction of Machines of War and Catapults, dedicates to the explanation of the so called σαμβύκη, a kind of scaling ladder on wheels designed by Damios of Kolophon. On the basis of both mechanical and textual considerations the κοχλίας, whose revolving movement produces the oscillation of the ladder, should be interpreted as a cylindrical horizontal roller (like Marsden suggests) and not as a vertical screw (like Lendle thinks). Accordingly, the supporting structure of the machine should be understood much less massive than what has been thought by scholars after Marsden.