To say about artillery that after nearly 550 days of the Russian-Ukrainian War is inactive "a god of war", is to say nothing. The word "ultima ratio regis", known since the days of Frederick the Great, and earlier, during Louis XV, as the operative part of the "ultima ratio regum" ("the last argument of kings"), was initially coined in relation to barrel artillery. Jerzy Reszczyński writes about the past of Polish artillery since the 14th century, as well as about the Polish contribution to artillery art.