ARTIFICER

(Lat ars, art, and facio, Imakt.) Lit. one wlii art. Among the Romans, artificers had peculiar privileges. They po e ed their own nd enjoyed an exemption from personal service. lires intellectual ref in the exercise of his profe ion, in contradistinction to artisan, wiii may practise either the fine or useful arts, but Ige is limited to the general rules of his trade. ARTII.l.ERY.notes all kinds(Fr. of art iller,mi iles to fortify.)used in wan In a general the machines by which they are propelled. Since the iniwder, however, the term has been chiefly confined to large ordnance, namely, cannon, howitzers, mortars,. with their carriages, ammunition, and apparatus or all kinds, including also the troops especially appointed for their management. ncipal military engines of the Romans, which can be properly clawed under the term artillery, were the balista and catapult a; the former for throwing stones, the latter for propelling darts and arrows. The invention of the balista is ascribed by Pliny to the Phoenicians; but other authors, among whom are Diodorus and Plutarch, say that both instruments were invented in Sicily. ^Slian 'hem to Dionysius the elder. They were very I) employed in the latter periods of the republic, »nd under the empire. In the middle ages, engines for tasaulllng and defending fortified towns or castles were greatly multiplied. Among these inventions are enumerated the espringal, trebuchet, mangona, mangonel, bricolla, petrary, meta fund a, berfrey, warwolf, <fcc. It is staled in the chronicle of Peter Langtoft, that Richard I. in his wars against the Saracens, had mills in his barges and galleys which were turned by the wind, and threw fire and stones upon the enemy. If the accounts given of the effects of some of these machines may be credited, they must have been of great power, and well adapted to the purpose of battering down walls and fortifications. It is related by He ming ford, that the engines used by Edward I. at the siege of the castle of Stirling, threw stones of 300 pounds weight.92 [s. 107]