你從來沒有聽說過的十種古代武器(上)

The history of human warfare is as storied as Game of Thrones and even more incestuously brutal.

人類戰爭史的故事性就跟《權力的遊戲》一樣精彩，甚至更血腥。

Time and again, the wisdom of the ages has been put to figuring out how to efficiently stab, maim, shoot, and in all other ways kill our enemies, and damn, are we good at it.

祖祖輩輩流傳下來的智慧只爲找出刺傷、致殘、射殺的最佳角度以及其他各種能置敵人於死地的手段。哦這該死的技能，我們還挺擅長的其實~

But that's nothing new. In fact, those old guys in your history textbooks were just as imaginative as we are today at pounding foes into the dust. Forget Shakespeare. This is war.

然而殺人無新式。其實，歷史課本里的那些老傢伙跟我們一樣，在如何撕碎敵人方面也是奇招百出。歷史不是莎士比亞筆下的風花雪月，這是戰爭。

k Steam Cannon

10.希臘蒸汽大炮

In 214 BC, the Roman Republic laid siege to the Sicilian city of Syracuse in a bid to gain strategic control of the island.

公元前214年，羅馬共和國圍攻錫拉庫扎的西西里市，妄圖得到該市的戰略控制權。

General Marcus Claudius Marcellus led a naval fleet of 60 quinqueremes—Roman battleships—across the Strait of Messina in a frontal charge while his second-in-command attacked from the land.

馬庫斯·克勞迪亞斯·馬塞洛將軍帶領着一隻由60只五段帆船組成的海軍艦隊——羅馬戰船——越過墨西拿海峽正面進攻西西里市，而他的副司令則從陸地入手。

But as the noose tightened around the city, the mighty Roman army found itself repelled by an unlikely adversary: Archimedes.

水陸兩軍逐漸收緊包圍圈，然而強大的羅馬軍團發現他們敗給了自己絲毫不放在眼裏的阿基米德。

For everything the Romans threw at him, Archimedes was always three steps ahead. Ballistae on the outer walls tore through the advancing cavalry.

無論羅馬軍團如何行動，阿基米德總能先其三步。城牆上的投石機撕裂了前進的軍隊。

Seaward, the Claw of Archimedes lifted whole ships out of the water and shattered them in a shower of splinters and screaming slaves.

海邊，阿基米德之爪將戰艦整隻吊起然後撞向海面，殘木碎板滿天飛濺，奴隸的慘叫更是不絕於耳。

For two years, the siege dragged on, an epic battle of military might versus scientific wit.

圍殲就這麼拖了兩年，這場史詩般的軍事鬥爭所用的計謀可與當今科學智慧媲美。

During this siege, Archimedes was said to have devised a weapon so devastating that it was able to burn ships to cinder from 150 meters (500 ft) away. All it took was a few drops of water.

據說，阿基米德在這場戰爭中發明了一種威力超強的武器，僅用幾滴水就能把150米（500英尺）外的船隻化爲灰燼。

The device was deceptively simple: a copper tube heated over coals with a hollow clay projectile dropped down the barrel.

裝置看似非常簡單：在煤上加熱的銅質炮管發射出空心泥制發射彈。

When the pipe got hot enough, a tiny bit of water was injected into the tube below the projectile.

當銅管達到一定溫度時，往發射器底下的銅管注入少量水。

The water instantly vaporized, blasting the projectile toward advancing ships. On impact, the clay missile exploded, spraying burning chemicals onto the wooden ships.

水立馬蒸發，產生的蒸汽壓力便將"子彈"射向敵軍。泥制炮彈在衝擊力的作用下炸裂，包含其中的易燃化學物質隨即灑滿整隻木船。

Even today, Archimedes's steam cannon is a matter of intense speculation.

直到今天，人們對阿基米德的蒸汽大炮依然猜測不斷。

Mythbusters gave it a bust, but a team at MIT was able to build a working—and highly effective—model using the original description of the cannon.

"流言終結者"們盡潑冷水，但麻省理工學院的一個團隊根據阿基米德蒸汽大炮的原始特徵描述，成功仿造出了一個實際操作性非常強的模型。

They calculated that their .45-kilogram (1 lb) metal shell was launched with 1.8 times the kinetic energy of an M2 machine gun firing a .50-caliber round.

根據他們的計算，45千克（1磅）的金屬炮彈的動能是勃朗寧M2重機槍的1.8倍。

If they hadn't shot it directly into a wall of dirt, they guessed that it would have had a range of 1,200 meters (4,000 ft). And they only used half a cup of water.

若非將炮彈發射到泥牆上，科學家們猜測它的射程能達到1200米（4000英尺）。而這僅是半杯水的作用。

lwind Catapult

9.旋風炮

Catapults are the age-old war machines, and like modern rifles, there was a different kind for every purpose.

石弩是一種有歷史的武器，和現代來福槍一樣，它也有不同種類，用途不一。

While films have shown us the wall punchers and beast machines used by Greek and Roman armies, the Chinese devised a smaller version that could strike important targets with pinpoint accuracy: the xuanfeng, or whirlwind catapult.

我們在電影中看過許多希臘和羅馬的軍隊武器：擊牆機和野獸機器，而中國卻發明了體積更小、命中率更高的版本：旋風炮。

Like a sniper rifle, the whirlwind catapult was a one-shot, one-kill form of attack.

跟狙擊步槍一樣，旋風炮也是一發一彈。

They were small enough to be quickly moved around a battlefield, and the entire catapult could be swiveled on its base while someone sighted out a target.

它體積小，便於在戰場上快速挪移。一旦發現目標，整個彈射器可以圍着基座旋轉發射。

This gave them a strategic advantage over heavier catapults and trebuchets which, while much more destructive with a single shot, took time and manpower to maneuver into position.

與笨重的大型投石機或石弩相比，旋風炮佔盡優勢。儘管前者威力更大，但操作起來要耗費相當的時間和人力。

To add to their deadly accuracy, the Chinese built these whirlwind catapults with two sling ropes and two release pins, keeping the sling pouch perfectly centered in the middle. No other cultures were known to do that.

爲了提高命中率，中國的旋風炮各有兩條吊索和兩個活動插銷，使彈袋完美地固定在中間。還沒有任何國家能做到這一點。

et Cats

8.火箭貓

Nobody had ever heard of rocket cats before 2014. Nobody, that is, except for Franz Helm, the man who invented them.

2014年以前，沒人聽說過《火箭貓》。當然，除了作者弗蘭茲·赫爾姆。

Sometime around AD 1530, the artillery master from Cologne, Germany, was putting together a military guide to siege warfare. Gunpowder was just beginning to have an impact on warfare, which made the book popular.

大約是公元1530年，這位來自德國科隆的火炮大師開始投入攻城戰的軍事指揮中。當時，由於火藥對戰爭的作用逐漸顯現，該書也流行起來。

Helm's manual contained descriptions of nearly every kind of bomb imaginable, all of it colorfully illustrated and grimly outlandish.

赫爾姆的手冊中描述了幾乎所有人們能想象到的炸彈種類，插圖配得色彩鮮豔卻讓人感覺陰森詭異。

Then he added a section advising siege armies to find a cat. Any cat will do, he said, as long as it came from the city you were trying to vanquish.

隨後他增加了一個章節，建議攻城部隊找一隻貓。他說，任何貓都可以，只要是從目標城跑出來的。

Then tie a bomb to it. In theory, the cat would scamper back to its home and subsequently burn down the entire city. Pigeons were fair game, too.

抓住它，然後綁上炸彈。理論上，貓會受驚跑回家，這樣就能燒燬整個城市。鴿子也可作此用途。

Whether or not these things actually happened is a question that people are still trying to answer, but the answer is "probably not."

當然，人們對證實這些武器是否曾真實用於攻城這一問題始終熱情不減，但答案很可能是否定的。

According to Mitch Fraas, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who had the pleasure of being the first person to translate the text, there isn't any historical evidence that anybody actually tried to do what Helm suggested.

賓夕法尼亞大學的研究員米奇·弗拉斯這位有幸成爲該文本翻譯的第一人表示，沒有任何歷史證據說明有任何人曾按照赫爾姆建議的去做。

The most likely result of such a scheme, he said, would be setting fire to your own camp.

他說該計謀極有可能會燒燬己方的營地。