er, darts and arrows. In
sieges, the 'Aries,' or 'battering ram,' which received its name
from having an iron head resembling that of a ram, was employed in
destroying the lower part of the wall, while the 'balista' was
overthrowing the battlements, and the 'catapulta' was employed to
shoot any of the besieged who appeared between them. The 'balistae'
and 'catapultae' were divided into the 'greater' and the 'less.'
When New Carthage, the arsenal of the Carthaginians, was taken,
according to Livy (b. xxvi. c. 47), there were found in it 120
large and 281 small catapultae, and twenty-three large and fifty-two
small balistae. The various kinds of 'tormenta' are said to have
been introduced about the time of Alexander the Great. If so,
Ovid must here be committing an anachronism, in making Pentheus
speak of 'tormenta,' who lived so many ages before that time. To
commit anachronisms with impunity seems, however, to be the poet's
privilege, from Ovid downwards to our Shakspere, where he makes
Falstaff talk familiarly of the West Indies. We find the
dictionaries giving 'tormentum' as the Latin word for 'cannon;' so
that in this case we may say not that 'necessity is the mother of
invention,' but rather that she is 'the parent of anachronism.']

[Footnote 84: _Acrisius._--Ver. 559. He was a king of Argos, the
son of Abas, and the father of Danae. He refused, and probably
with justice, to admit Bacchus or his rites within the gates of
his city.]

[Footnote 85: _His grandfather._--Ver. 563. Athamas was the son of
AEolus, and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus;
who being the father of Agave, the mother of Pentheus, is the
grandfather mentioned in the present line.]

[Footnote 86: _Maeonia._--Ver. 583. Colonists were said to have
proceeded from Lydia, or Maeonia, to the coasts of Etruria. Bacchus
assumes the name of Acoetes, as corresponding to the Greek epithet
+akoites+, 'watchful,' or 'sleepless;' which ought to be the
characteristic of the careful 'pilot,' or 'helmsman.']

[Footnote 87: _Olenian she-goat._--Ver. 594. Amalthea, the goat
that suckled Jupiter, is called Olenian, either because she was
reared in Olenus, a city of Boeotia, or because she was placed as a
Constellation between the arms, +olenai+, of the Constellation
Auriga, or the Charioteer. The r