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The Greeks and Romans both made extensive use of artillery for shooting large arrows, bolts or spherical stones or metal balls. Occasionally they also used ranged early thermal weapons. There was heavy siege artillery, but more mobile and lighter field artillery was already known and used in pitched battles, especially in Roman imperial period.
Cannons did not have sights, therefore, even with measuring tools, aiming was still largely guesswork. [110] In the latter half of the 17th century, the French engineer Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses, in a time when many field commanders "were notorious dunces in siegecraft."
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, by David Roberts (1850), shows the city burning. Early thermal weapons, which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories, were employed in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately the 8th century BC until the mid-16th century AD).
Re-enactor with Pompeii-type gladius The Mainz Gladius on display at the British Museum, London. Gladius is the general Latin word for 'sword'. In the Roman Republic, the term gladius Hispaniensis (Spanish sword) referred (and still refers) specifically to the short sword, 60 cm (24 inches) long, used by Roman legionaries from the 3rd century BC.
Many of the first metal artifacts that archaeologists have identified have been tools or weapons, as well as objects used as ornaments such as jewellery. These early metal objects were made of the softer metals; copper , gold , and lead in particular, either as native metals or by thermal extraction from minerals, and softened by minimal heat ...
Some later Roman technologies were taken directly from Greek civilization. After the absorption of the ancient Greek city states into the Roman Republic in 146 BC, the highly advanced Greek technology began to spread across many areas of Roman influence and supplement the Empire. This included the military advances that the Greeks had made, as ...
Roman artillery was very efficient at that time, and during a siege the Romans would attack the weakest area of their enemy's defenses and attempt to breach the walls at that point. To support this effort, artillery attacks commence, with three main objectives: [ 3 ] to cause damage to defenses, casualties among the opposing army, and loss of ...
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.