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Sketch of an Onager, from Antique technology by Diels. The onager was a post-classical Roman siege engine, which derived its name from the kicking action of the machine, similar to that of an onager (wild ass). It is a type of catapult that uses torsional pressure, generally from twisted rope, to store energy for the shot.
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.
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 ...
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 ...
Pont du Gard (1st century AD), over the Gardon in southern France, is one of the masterpieces of Roman technology.. Ancient Roman technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods, processes, and engineering practices which supported Roman civilization and made possible the expansion of the economy and military of ancient Rome (753 BC – 476 AD).
Onager with a bowl bucket Sketch of an onager with a sling, a later improvement that increased the length of the throwing arm, from Antique technology by Diels.. 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.
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while others have wheels to enable advancing up to the enemy fortification.
The Romans used three main siege techniques to seize enemy cities: by starvation (it took more time, but less loss of life on the part of the attackers), by creating all around the besieged city a series of fortifications (an inner [4] and sometimes an outer contravallation, [5] as in the case of Alesia) [6] that would prevent the enemy from obtaining supplies (of food and even water, by ...