between myth and history 195
By the time Nabis and Apega came to power, the late third century
BC, many inventors and engineers in the Mediterranean world were al-
ready designing animated statues and other clever devices for peace and
war. An example of a fourth- century apparatus, the ingenious kleroterion
(a “randomization” device for selecting citizens to serve in civic offices)
has survived. Along with the aforementioned Antikythera device, this
lottery machine represents the tip of the iceberg; a great many other
practical technological experimentations and other innovations have left
no physical traces but were described in ancient texts.
By the fourth and early third centuries BC, military engineers in Italy,
Carthage, and Greece had developed crossbow artillery and powerful
torsion catapults, based on complex mechanical formulas and springs, for
rulers such as Dionysius of Syracuse and Philip II of Macedonia. For his
attempted conquest of Rhodes in 305 BC, Demetrius Poliorcetes, “Be-
sieger of Cities,” had his engineers construct the tallest mechanized siege
tower ever built. Equipped with 16 heavy catapults and weighing about
160 tons, the iron- plated wooden “City Taker” required relays of more
than 3,000 men to activate. Demetrius also deployed a gigantic battering
ram manned by 1,000 soldiers. Archimedes of Syracuse is perhaps the
most famous engineer of the Hellenistic era, devising numerous geome-
try theorems and designing a host of amazing machines utilizing levers,
pulleys, screws, and differential gears, and ranging from astronomical
apparatus and odometers to heat rays that ignited invading navies and the
Claw, a massive grappling hook on a crane to grab and sink enemy ships. 32
Given this rich legacy of classical and Hellenistic inventions, it seems
safe to assume that Nabis’s lethal Apega machine was modeled on techno-
logical precedents. The Apega replica was self- moving owing to springs
that caused her to stand up and raise her arms; Nabis controlled the
mechanisms to give the impression that the figure was operating under its
own power. The Apega automaton was not heated but could kill victims
by forcible embrace, recalling the way the mythical bronze robot Talos
crushed people to his chest. Some historians have wondered whether the
Apega device was an inspiration for the Iron Maiden, “Eiserne Jungfrau,”
the imaginary medieval torture/execution device, a metal cabinet shaped
like a female with a spiked interior.