Mangonneau

Fr. A word originally derived from the Greek, which, according to Potter, seems to signify any engine designed to cast mi ive weapons. With respect to that particular engine, which the French have called mang an, manganelle, and mangonneau, there is not any specific term for that famous engine, out of which, stones of a size not le than mill-stones, were thrown with such violence, as to dash whole houses in pieces at a blow:—it was called indeed by the Romans, balista; but this name though of Grecian original, appears not to have been used in Greece; this engine, however, was known there, and was the same with that used by the Romans, the force of which is thus expre ed by Lucan:— At faxum quoties ingenti verberis ictu Excutitur, qualis rupes, quam vertice montis Abscidit impulsu ventorum adjuta vetustas; Frangit cunctaruens, nec tantum corpora pre a Exanimas, totos cum sanguine di ipat art us.