carroballista

From carrus (“cart”) +‎ ballista.

carroballista f (genitive carroballistae); first declension

1. A ballista mounted on a cart.
   • 4th-5th c., Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De Re Militari 2:24

     Carroballistas aliquanto maiores — hae enim longius et uehementius spicula dirigunt — superpositas curriculis cum binis equis uel mulis post aciem conuenit ordinari, et, cum sub ictum teli accesserint, bestiae sagittis ballistariis transfiguntur.

     It is suitable for the rather larger ballistas on carts — which indeed shoot javelins farther and more forcefully — to be arranged placed on tracks behind the line of battle drawn by horses or mules in pairs, and, when one [elephant] might approach before the impact of the missile, the beasts are shot through by ballista arrows.

First-declension noun.

• “carroballista”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• carroballista in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.