Editing Caltrop (section)

==History==
[[File:Three Kingdoms Shu Bronze Caltrops (40512948263).jpg|thumb|Bronze caltrops from the [[Three Kingdoms]] era]]
[[File:Drevnosti RG v3 ill130c - Caltrop.jpg|right|thumb|A 16th-century caltrop]]
[[File:Imperial Encyclopaedia - Military Administration - pic553.svg|thumb|Illustration from the 18th-century Chinese book ''[[Gujin Tushu Jicheng]]'', showing caltrops with spikes that stick in the ground]]
The caltrop was called  {{lang|la|tribulus}}<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[A Latin Dictionary]] |title=trĭbŭlus |last1=Lewis |first1=Charlton T. |last2=Short |first2=Charles |date=1879}}</ref> by the ancient Romans, or sometimes {{lang|la|murex ferreus}},<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[A Latin Dictionary]] |title=mūrex |last1=Lewis |first1=Charlton T. |last2=Short |first2=Charles |date=1879}}</ref> the latter meaning "jagged iron" (literally "iron spiny snail-shell"). The former term derives from the ancient Greek word {{lang|grc-Latn|tribolos}} meaning three spikes.<ref>{{LSJ|tri/bolos|τρίβολος|ref}}</ref>

The late [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] writer [[Vegetius]], referring in his work ''[[De re militari]]'' to [[scythed chariot]]s, wrote:<ref>{{cite book| url=http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~madsb/home/war/vegetius/dere07.php#21| title=The Military Institutions of the Romans Book III: Dispositions for Action| first=Flavius Vegetius| last=Renatus| year=390| chapter=Armed Chariots and Elephants| access-date=2005-10-22| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051224005323/http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~madsb/home/war/vegetius/dere07.php#21#21| archive-date=2005-12-24| url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The armed [[chariot]]s used in war by Antiochus and Mithridates at first terrified the Romans, but they afterwards made a jest of them. As a chariot of this sort does not always meet with plain and level ground, the least obstruction stops it. And if one of the horses be either killed or wounded, it falls into the enemy's hands. The [[Roman legion|Roman soldiers]] rendered them useless chiefly by the following contrivance: at the instant the engagement began, they strewed the field of battle with caltrops, and the horses that drew the chariots, running full speed on them, were infallibly destroyed. A caltrop is a device composed of four spikes or points arranged so that in whatever manner it is thrown on the ground, it rests on three and presents the fourth upright.}}

Another example of the use of caltrops was found in [[Jamestown, Virginia]], in the United States:<ref>[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1963/3/1963_3_66.shtml ''American Heritage'']. {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200806162058/https://www.americanheritage.com/digging-jamestown |date=2020-08-06 }}, March 1963.</ref>

{{blockquote|Undoubtedly the most unusual weapon or military device surviving from seventeenth-century Virginia is known as a caltrop, a single example of which has been found at Jamestown. It amounts to a widely spread iron tripod about three inches long with another leg sticking vertically upward, so that however you throw it down, one spike always sticks up. ... The fact that only one has been found would seem to suggest that they were used little, if at all. As with all military equipment designed for European wars, the caltrop's presence in Virginia must be considered in the light of possible attacks by the Spaniards as well as assaults from the Indians.}}

The Japanese version of the caltrop is called {{lang|ja-Latn|[[makibishi]]}}. Makibishi were sharp spiked objects that were used in feudal Japan to slow pursuers and also were used in the defence of samurai fortifications. Iron makibishi were called {{lang|ja-Latn|tetsubishi}}, while the makibishi made from the dried seed pod of the [[water caltrop]], or water chestnut (genus ''Trapa''), formed a natural type of makibashi called {{lang|ja-Latn|tennenbishi}}. Both types of makibishi could penetrate the thin soles of shoes, such as the {{lang|ja-Latn|[[waraji]]}} sandals, which were commonly worn in feudal Japan.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U02pzwXNxBIC&pg=PA32 |title=Japanese Castles AD 250–1540 |first=Stephen |last=Turnbull |date=22 April 2008 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=9781846032530 |access-date=2 April 2018 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=eyMYelZlKekC&pg=PA119 ''Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan''], [[Karl Friday]], Psychology Press, 2004 P. 119.</ref>

<gallery mode=packed heights=160>
File:Weapons (1496876265).jpg|Traditional caltrops and mines from the [[Mongol Empire]]
</gallery>