Asser
Asser (from assero), what is joined to
the walls, means the beam of a house (Plaut. Aul. 2.6, 8), or, more usually, a pole, e. g. the pole of a litter (Juv. 3.245). In warfare different kinds of long asseres were used: (1) falcati asseres (Liv. 38.5, 3), also called harpagones (Liv. 30.10,16); δορυδρέπανα (Plb. 21.27.4), poles with hooks at the ends, used for tearing down battlements. (2) At sea, similar poles (called longurii) were used for destroying the rigging of the enemy's ships (Caes. Gal. 3.14, 5). (3) Poles, twelve feet long, with sharp points (cuspidibus praefixi), hurled from engines against the works of the besiegers (Caes. B.C. 2.2). (4) Strong beams with grappling hooks (corvi et ferreae manus) attached, which were let drop on the enemy's ships (Q. Curt. 4.3.24).
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.