Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Turris

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TURRIS (τύρσις, πύρσος). In a general sense, any very lofty building or pile of buildings; whence the term is applied indiscriminately to objects of civil or military architecture, a palatial residence, or a fortified place. Liv. xxxiii. 48. Sall. Jug. 103. Suet. Nero, 38. Ov. A. Am. iii. 416.

2. A tower of fortification, disposed at intervals in the walls of a city, stationary camp, or any other fortified enclosure. (Cic. Caes. Liv. &c.) They were built both round and square, were run up to several stories high, with turrets (pinnae) on the top, loop-holes (fenestrae) on the face, and frequently a sally-port (fornix) below, and in general were situated at short distances from one another, so that an attacking party would be exposed to a discharge of missiles on both flanks at the same moment. The illustration (Turris/2.1) exhibits three towers, two round and one square, now standing by the side of the Porta Asinaria, in the walls of Rome.

3. Turris mobilis, or ambulatoria. A moveable tower used in sieges, made of wood, covered with iron, raw hides, or stuffed mattresses, to break the force of the blows directed against it, and placed upon wheels, by means of which it could be driven close up to the enemy's walls. It was divided into several stories or platforms (tabulata), the lower one containing the battering-ram (aries), the upper ones, various kinds of drawbridges and other contrivances for raising and lowering the besiegers on to the walls (pons, sambuca, tolleno), and the highest of all being filled with light troops who cleared the opposite ramparts of their defenders before the bridges were let down for the assault. Liv. xxi. 11. Vitruv. x. 13. Veg. Mil. iv. 17.

4. A tower erected upon the deck of a ship of war, into which the troops ascended to annoy the crew of an enemy's vessel with their missiles, or to scale a fortress from the seaboard. (Liv. xxiv. 34. Ammian. xxi. 12. 9 — 10.) The illustration (Turris/4.1) is taken from a marble bas-relief.

5. A tower fastened on the back of an elephant, in which armed men were stationed on the battle-field. (Liv. xxxvii. 40.) The illustration (Turris/5.1) is copied from an engraved gem.

6. A particular kind of battle-array, in which the army was disposed in the figure of an oblong-square column. Cato ap. Fest. s. Serra praeliari. Aul. Gell. x. 9.

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  Turris/2.1
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  Turris/4.1
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  Turris/5.1