Nomadic Power, Sedentary Security, and the Crossbow

Author: Wright, David Curtis

Source: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Volume 58, Number 1, 20 April 2005 , pp. 15-31(17)

Publisher: Akademiai Kiado

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Abstract:

The threats, both real and perceived, posed by pastoral nomadic peoples to the security of sedentary societies and states are too well known to bear repetition here. Civilised states were not always completely helpless before the onslaughts of nomadic warriors and could sometimes choose from a repertoire of diplomatic, tactical, and strategic measures and cautions in response to present or imminent nomadic attacks. This article, which draws on Chinese, Byzantine, and European sources, surveys several of these measures and ends with a more in-depth consideration of crossbows and other arcuballistae. It concludes that these were often the most effective weapons for fighting nomadic cavalrymen.

Keywords: Kitan; Türks; arcuballista; crossbow; Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220); Liao dynasty (915-1125); Ming dynasty (1368-1644); shanyu; Song dynasty (960-1279); Tang dynasty (618-907); Warring States period (403-221 B.C.); Xiongnu