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Roman Artillery

The Romans improved upon Greek designs of catapults, developing light and portable models like the Scorpio that shot arrows accurately, as well as larger ballistae that threw stones weighing up to 70 pounds. The most powerful was the Onager, which took eight men to arm and could hurl heavy boulders over great distances, using an innovative spring torsion system of tightly wound animal sinew.

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378 views2 pages

Roman Artillery

The Romans improved upon Greek designs of catapults, developing light and portable models like the Scorpio that shot arrows accurately, as well as larger ballistae that threw stones weighing up to 70 pounds. The most powerful was the Onager, which took eight men to arm and could hurl heavy boulders over great distances, using an innovative spring torsion system of tightly wound animal sinew.

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ROMAN ARTILLERY: FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW Catapults had originally been invented by the Greeks, but the

e Romans perfected them. The catapult )shot arrows and was very accurate. The most popular type was the light Scorpio which could be mounted on a cart and transported easily. Later, a new design called the Carroballista had an iron frame with springs encased in bronze tubes.

The ballista was a stone- thrower which was bigger and less easily portable. Some of these threw stones the size of oranges, some could throw boulders up to 70lb in weight.

The Onager (wild ass) was a later type of ballista which was very big indeed, it took eight men to wind back the arm and it lobbed heavy boulders with great force.

How did these machines work? They used a spring torsion system where animal sinew was wound to a fiercely tight spring and then released suddenly to produce a vast amount of energy and speed.

A skeleton found in Britain with a Roman arrowhead between its vertebrae.

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