Batman, Stephen', an English divine and poet, was born at Bruton, Somerset, in 1537, studied at Cam- bridge, became chaplain to Abp. Parker, and died in 1587. He published The Travayl d Pilgrim. " an alle- gorico-theological romance" of human life (1560, 4to); .1 Cristall Glass of Christian Reformation (1569, 4to); Joyful News m,t of Helvetia, declaring the fall of the Pa. pal Dignity (1570, 8vo); Treatise against Usury (1575, Bvo); Golden Bool of th Leaden Gods (1577) ; The Doom, warning all men to Judgment (1581, 8vo)._ Rose, Biog. Did. b. v, ; Allibone, Diet, of Authors, i, 141.
Battelle, Gobdon, D.IX, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Newport, Ohio, Nov. 14, ism. He entered Marietta College in 1883, and graduated at All. ;hanj College in 1840. In 1842 he was licensed to preach; and from 1843 to 1851 he was head of an acade,,,v a< ( llarksburg, Va. Meanwhile he had been ordained deacon in 1847, and elder in 1849. From 1851 to 1860 he labored efficiently as preacher and presiding elder. He tfai a member of the General Conferences Of 1856 and i860. His iafluenoe iu Western Virginia
6 BATTERING-RAM
was very great, and on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861, he was called to serve as visitor to the military camps. He was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of West Virginia, and to him, more largely than to any other man, is due the aboli- tion of slavery in that region. In November, 1861, he was chosen chaplain of the 1st Va. Regiment, and con- tinued in the service till his death of typhoid fever, Jan. 7, 1862.— Minutes of Conferences, 1863, p. 34.
Battering-ram C"l3, lar, a lamb, Ezek. iv, 2 ; xxi, 22; and so Josephus, icpioc, War, iii, 7, 19, where the instrument is described ; but Sept. in the above passages distinctively fitXvoTao-ic. ; Targ. and Kimchi, i?-p ^rfO), a military engine for forcing a breach in walls (comp. 1 Mace, xiii, 43), of very high antiquity, being in use by the Babjdonians (Ezek. 1. c), and ap- parently still earlier by the Israelites in the siege of Abel-Beth-Maachah (2 Sam. xx, 15); it may have been one of the "engines" of war employed by Uz- ziah, king of Jud;.h (2 Chron. xxvi, 15). This machine was a long beam of strong wood, usually oak. One end was made of iron, shaped like a ram's head, and when driven repeatedly and with great force against the wall of a city or fortification, either pierced it or battered it down (see Diod. Sic. xii, 28; Plinv, vii, 57, p. 416, ed. Hard. ; Vitruv. x, 19 [13], 2). There were three kinds of battering-rams: (1.) One that was held in suspension, like a scale-beam, by means of cables or chains in a frame of strong timber. This must have been easy to work and of great power, as a very heavy body suf- pended in the air requires no great strength to move it with much force. (2.) In an- other kind of ram, the mighty instrument acted upon rollers, and its power appears to have been very great, although it must have been worked with more labor than the preceding. (3.) There was another ram, which was not suspended or mounted on rollers, but borne and worked by manual strength. The ma- chine was generally covered by a movable shed or roof, which protected the men by whom it was worked. It has been calculated, that the momentum of a bat- tering-ram 28 inches in diameter, 180 feet long, with a head of a ton and a half, weighing 41,112 pounds,
Oldinary Batttring-
Ancitnt Assyrian Battering-ram supporting a Tower contain- ing Warriors.
BATTLE
697
BATTLEMENT
and worked by a thousand men, would only be equal to a point-blank shot from a thirty-six pounder. The ' ram was used by Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, and also by Titus, with terrible force, in the final de- J struction of that city (Ezek. and Josephus, ut sup.). It was a favorite method of attack by the Romans (see Smith's Diet, of Class. Antiq. s. v. Aries), and no less so with the Babylonians (Layard's Nineveh, ii, 274). See Engine ; War ; Siege.
Battle (properly tVQ'rib'O, milckamah', -KoXijioo). 'Though the Hebrews in their mode of conducting war- like operations varied somewhat in the course of ages, and are elsewhere shown to have been swayed by the \ practice of greater and more military nations, still, from the period when the institution of royalty gave rise to an organized system, it was a maxim to spare the sol- j diers all unnecessary fatigue before an engagement, and to supply them "liberally with food. Their arms were enjoined to be in the best order, and when drawn up for battle they formed a line of solid squares of a I hundred men, each square being ten deep, and with | sufficient interval between to allow of facility in move- ! ments, and the slingers to pass through. The archers \ may have occupied the two flanks, or formed in the , rear, according to the intentions of the commander on the occasion ; but the slingers were always stationed in the rear until they were ordered forward to impede a ■ hostile approach, or to commence the engagement, some- J what in the manner of modern skirmishers. Mean- j time, while the trumpets waited to sound the last sig- nal, the king, or his representative, appeared in his sacred dress (rendered in our version " the beauty of holiness"), except when he wished to remain unknown, as at Megiddo (2 Chron. xxxv, 22) ; and proceeded to make the final dispositions, in the middle of his chosen j braves, attended by priests, who, by their exhortations, animated the ranks within hearing. It was now, we may suppose, when the enemy was at hand, that the slingers would be ordered to pass between the intervals of the line of solid squares, open their order, and with shouts, let fly their stone or leaden missiles, until, by the gradual approach of the opposing fronts, they would be hemmed in, and be recalled to the rear or to cover j a flank. Then would come the signal to charge, and the great shout of battle; the heavy infantry, receiv- ing the order to attack, would, under cover of their shields and levelled spears, press direct upon the front of the enemy ; the rear ranks might then, if so armed, cast their second darts, and the archers from the rear shoot high, so as to pitch the arrows over their own main line of spearmen into the dense masses beyond them. If the enemy broke through the intervals, we may imagine that a line of charioteers in reserve, breaking from their position, might in part charge among the disordered ranks of the foe, drive them back, and facilitate the restoration of the oppressed masses, or, wheeling round a flank, fall upon the en- emy, or be encountered by a similar manoeuvre, and perhaps repulsed. The king, meanwhile, surrounded by his princes, posted close to the rear of his line of battle, and iii the middle of the showered missiles, would watch the enemy and remedy every disorder. : In this position it was that several of the sovereigns of Judah were slain (2 Chron. xviii, 33, and xxxv, 23), | and that such an enormous waste of human life took place ; for the shock of two hostile lines of masses, at least ten in depth, advancing under the confidence of breastplate and shield, when once engaged hand to hand, had difficulties of no ordinary nature to retreat; because the hindermost ranks, not feeling personally the first slaughter, would not, and the foremost could not, fall back; neither could the commanders disen- gage the line without a certainty of being defeated. The fate of the day was therefore no longer within the control of the chief, and nothing but obstinate valor was left to decide the victory. Hence, from the stub- I