in zoology. See Ovis

in astronomy. See Astronomy.

Battering RAM, in antiquity, a military engine used to batter and beat down the walls of places besieged.

The battering ram was of two sorts; the one rude and plain, the other compound. The former seems to have been no more than a great beam which the soldiers bore on their arms and shoulders, and with one end of it by main force assailed the wall. The compound ram is thus described by Josephus: it is a vast beam, like the mast of a ship, strengthened at one end with a head of iron, something resembling that of a ram, whence it took its name.

This was hung by the middle with ropes to another beam, which lay across two posts; and hanging thus equally balanced, it was by a great number of men drawn backwards and pushed forwards, striking the wall with its iron-head.

Plutarch informs us, that Marc Anthony, in the Parthian war, made use of a ram four-score feet long; and Vitruvius tells us, that they were sometimes an hundred and six, and sometimes an hundred and twenty feet in length; and to this perhaps the force and strength of the engine was in a great measure owing. The ram was managed at one time by a whole century of soldiers; and they being spent, were seconded by another century, so that it played continually without any intermission.

RAM'S HEAD, in a ship, is a great block belonging to the fore and main-halliards. It has three shivers in it, into which the halliards are put, and in a hole at the end of it are reeved the ties.