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Roman siege engines were, for the most part, adapted from Hellenistic siege technology. Relatively small efforts were made to develop the technology; however, the Romans brought an unrelentingly aggressive style to siege warfare [ 1 ] that brought them repeated success.
The onager (UK: / ˈ ɒ n ə dʒ ə /, / ˈ ɒ n ə ɡ ə /; US: / ˈ ɑː n ə dʒ ə r /) [1] was a Roman torsion-powered siege engine. It is commonly depicted as a catapult with a bowl, bucket, or sling at the end of its throwing arm. The onager was first mentioned in 353 AD by Ammianus Marcellinus, who described onagers as the same as a ...
Roman seaborne siege engine build on two ships. Siege hook: 189 BC Rome: A siege hook is a weapon used to pull stones from a wall during a siege. The method used was to penetrate the protective wall with the hook and then retract it, pulling away some of the wall with it. Scorpio: 52 BC Gaul: Similar to the ballista, but smaller. Was sometimes ...
Although most Roman siege engines were adaptations of earlier Greek designs, the Romans were adept at engineering them swiftly and efficiently, as well as innovating variations such as the repeating ballista. The 1st century BC army engineer Vitruvius describes in detail many of the Roman siege machines in his manuscript De architectura.
The scorpio or scorpion was a type of Roman torsion siege engine and field artillery piece. It was described in detail by the early-imperial Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius [1] in the 1st century BC and by the 4th century AD officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus.
The successes of the Syracusans in repelling the Roman siege had made them overconfident. In 212 BC, the Romans received information that the city's inhabitants were to participate in the annual festival to their goddess Artemis. A small party of Roman soldiers approached the city under the cover of night and managed to scale the walls to get ...
The Roman Legions first used siege towers c. 200 BC; in the first century BC, Julius Caesar accomplished a siege at Uxellodunum in Gaul using a ten-story siege tower. [6] Romans were nearly always successful in besieging a city or fort, due to their persistence, the strength of their forces, their tactics, and their siege engines. [6]
Torsion siege engine pieces were probably invented in Macedonia, shortly before the times of Alexander III. These were driven by the torsion of a spring made of an appropriate organic material, usually sinew or hair, human or horse. Stone-throwing torsion-powered machines had their first recorded use in 332 BC at the siege of Tyre by Alexander. [2]