Diels and E. Schramm:

| English Translation (from Greek) |

| English Translation (from German) |
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| ...case. They called the whole instrument a gastraphetes original: "gastraphētēn"; literally "belly-bow", because the pulling back of the bowstring original: "toxitidos" was accomplished by means of the belly. | | ...the other side. The whole machine was called a belly-gun original: "Bauchgewehr", because one accomplished the tensioning of the bowstring through the belly. |
| 5 Through the aforementioned machine, it resulted that a larger bolt could be launched and over a greater distance. | | 8 With the described machine, one could launch a larger projectile and to a further distance. |
| But wishing to increase both the size of the bolt and the range of the shot, and seeking to make the arms original: "agkōnas"; the limbs of the bow more powerful, but being unable to achieve the goal 15 through the use of horns original: "keratōn"; composite bows were traditionally made of wood, sinew, and horn, they made everything else similar to the previously described machines; however, they fashioned the arms from strong wood and made them larger than those found in the (standard) bow. 20 Then they fixed a frame original: "plinthion"; literally "a little brick," referring to a rectangular box-frame out of four strong bars, such as ΑΒΓΔ, having sockets original: "tormous"; holes through which the springs pass in the vertical bars ΑΒ and ΓΔ. Around the horizontal bars 25 ΑΔ and ΒΓ, they wound a cord, having prepared a sufficient coil of rope from a winding machine; and having placed it around, they tightened it p. 82 very much and with force for the first layer original: "domon"; a single complete winding of the rope; then, placing it in sequence... | | Since they wanted to increase both the projectile and the shooting range, and therefore sought to make the bow-arms even stronger than they were, they could no longer achieve the purpose with the (bow) horns. Therefore, they made everything else exactly as said before, but the arms were made from strong wood and longer than the standard bow-arms. Then they constructed from four strong pieces of wood a frame like ΑΒΓΔ with tenons on the vertical uprights AB and ΓΔ. Around the sills ΑΔ and ΒΓ, they wound a strand of sinews, which they had braided together with a machine from individual strands into a strong cord, and after it was put around, they pulled it as a first layer with... |

3: toxidos in MS M | 5: eirēmenou in MSS P, V | 6: meizona in MS M | 11: tous added by Köchly | 12: autōn by Wescher: auton in MS M: missing in PV | 13: poiēsan in MS M | 15: toxō in MS M: missing in PV | 16: epēxa in MS M | 18: echōn in MS M | 24: tous ΑΔ, ΒΓ in MS M: tous ta ΒΓ in PV; perieballon in PV: ekballon in MS M | 25: schoinion by Wescher according to the Scholion in PV; symboliou schoinion mēryma: stoicheiōn in MS M: stoicheion in PV: stoichēdon ex organou symboliou by Schneider Saxo; presumably organou is to be deleted as a gloss and symboleōs should be written according to Hesychius (see above) — Diels | 26: mēryka in MS M | 27: syneteinon in PV: synenan in MS M: perhaps synenan? — Diels (cf. Philo, Mechanics 65, 40) | 28: kai missing in PV | 29: perithentes by R. Schn.: thentes in MPV.