in Antiquity, a military engine contrived for throwing arrows, darts, and stones, against the enemy. Some of these engines were of such force that they would throw stones of a hundredweight. Josephus takes notice of the surprising effects of these engines, and says that the stones thrown out of them beat down the battlements, knocked off the angles of the towers, and would level a whole file of men from one end to the other, were the phalanx ever so deep.

CATAPULTA for Arrows, Spears, or Darts. Some of the spears and darts thrown by these engines are said to have been eighteen feet long, and to have been thrown with such velocity as to take fire in their course. This, however, is absurd; but it is by no means improbable that spears, with fire-brands attached to them, were projected from these engines.

CATARACT, in Hydrography, a precipice in the channel of a river, caused by rocks or other obstacles stopping the course of the stream, whence the water falls with great noise and impetuosity. The word is derived from xaropos, I tumble down with violence; compounded of xara, down, and pswos, dejicio, I throw down. Strabo calls that a cataract which we call a cascade; and what we call a cataract the ancients usually called a catadupa. Hermippus has an express dissertation, "De admirandis mundi Cataractis supra et subterraneis;" where he uses the word in a new sense, meaning by cataract any violent motion of the elements.