Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Greek siege tower first used in Rhodes. [5] Polybolos: 289 BC Greece: A siege engine with torsion mechanism, drawing its power from twisted sinew-bundles. Sambuca: 213 BC Sicily: 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 first two rulers to make use of siege engines to a large extent were Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great. Their large engines spurred an evolution that led to impressive machines, like the Demetrius Poliorcetes ' Helepolis (or "Taker of Cities") of 304 BC: nine stories high and plated with iron, it stood 40 m (130 ft) tall and 21 ...
The first invasion of Britain took place in 55 BC, after a rapid and successful initial conquest of Gaul, ... The onager was a post-classical Roman siege engine, ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 10 December 2024. Siege engine using long arm to throw projectiles For other uses, see Trebuchet (disambiguation). Replica counterweight trebuchets at Château de Castelnaud Counterweight trebuchet used in a siege from the Jami' al-tawarikh, c. 1306-18 A trebuchet [nb 1] is a type of catapult that uses a ...
There is a popular myth in Gloucester, England that the well known children's rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, is about a battering ram used in the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during the Civil War. However, the story is almost certainly untrue; during the siege, which lasted only one month, no battering rams were used, although many cannons were.
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]
West of China, the mangonel remained the primary siege engine until the late 12th century when it was replaced by the counterweight trebuchet. [62] In China the mangonel was the primary siege engine until the counterweight trebuchet was introduced during the Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty in the 13th century. [63]
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 ...