The corpus record — Latin

ballista1

ballista1 · f

a lārge military engine

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Tyranni Triginta 11 · 16.69/10k
Valeriani Duo 1 · 9.82/10k
Gallieni Duo 3 · 8.17/10k
De Bello Hispaniensi 2 · 3.3/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42 - 41 2 · 2.63/10k
Bacchides 2 · 2.03/10k
De Architectura 11 · 1.91/10k
Ab Urbe Condita, books 26-27 - 26 3 · 1.77/10k
Phaedra 1 · 1.41/10k
Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40 - 39 2 · 1.36/10k
C. Caligula 1 · 1.31/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 21-25 - 21 2 · 1.29/10k

Densest 12 of 30 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ballista — Lewis & Short

ballista (better than balista; in Gloss. also ballistra), ae, f.ba/llw,

I a lārge military engine, resembling a bow, stretched with cords and thongs, by which masses of stone and other missiles were thrown to a great distance; a machine for projectiles, the ballista (orig. diff. from catapulta, which was used for throwing arrows; but afterwards often interchanged with it; cf. Vitr. 10, 16-18; Veg. 4, 22): centenariae, throwing stones of a hundred pounds weight, Lucil. ap. Non. p. 555, 25: ballistae lapidum et reliqua tormenta telorum eo graviores emissiones habent, quo sunt contenta atque adducta vehementius, *Cic. Tusc. 2, 24, 57; Caes. B. C. 2, 2; Liv. 24, 40, 15; 21, 11, 10; Tac. A. 12, 56; 15, 9; id. H. 3, 23; 3, 29; 4, 23; Gell. 7 (6), 3; Sil. 1, 334; Luc. 2, 686; Vulg. 1 Macc. 6, 20; 6, 51.—Sportively: meus est ballista pugnus, cubitus catapulta est mihi, umerus aries, Plaut. Capt. 4, 2, 17. —For throwing other missiles, Caes. B. C. 2, 2; Luc. 2, 686; 3, 465.—

II Transf., the weapon thrown, a missile, Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 42; Lucil. lib. XXVIII.: ballistas jactans centenarias. Sisenn. Hist. lib. IIII: ballistas quattuor talentarias, Non. p. 555, 24 sq.—

III Trop.: jam infortunii intenta ballista probe, an instrument, Plaut. Poen. 1, 1, 73; id. Bacch. 4, 4, 58.

2. Ballista — Lewis & Short

Ballista, ae, v. 2. Balista.

3. ballista — Walde–Hofmann

ballista, -ae f. ,Schleudermaschine, Wurfgeschoß* (seit Plaut., rom., Nbf. -istra, ebenso -isträrius, s. Niedermann Gl. 1, 262, Festschr. Gauchat 49 f., IJ. 7, 3; ähnlicher Wechsel im Illyr., unklar, ob unter etr. oder vigrl.-rom. Einfluß, s. Krahe ZONF. 5, 157 und vgl. genesfr)a): aus gr. *Barkıorhs wie catapulta aus xaraméATng. — ss. arcuballista f. ,Bogenballista^ (Veg., Heges., rom.; aus mlat. ar(cu)balisto … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. ballista, p. 127]

In the wild

ballistis Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 24.2.13
ballistam Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.56.p4
Ballistam Livy, Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42 - 41 p27
ballistis Vitruvius, De Architectura 10.13.7
Ballista Historia Augusta, Tyranni Triginta 12
ballistaeque Livy, Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32 - 32 p14

6 of 91 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. ballista (scan p. 89; entry #1159).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. ballista (scan p. 127; entry #357).

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.