Page 38 - All About History - Issue 26-15

SIEGEENGINES

Sieges began in the ancient world as a way of
breaching castles. As fortifications improved, so

did the machines used to bring them down

Essentially a giant
crossbow, the ballista
ONAGER 250BCE struck fear into its enemies
The first type of catapult, the onager was used by
the Romans to topple enemy fortifications. Stones
would be loaded into the machine and hurled at
high speed into walls and ramparts. Simpler to
use and on the whole more destructive than a
ballista, the onager first appeared in 250BCE, but
its exact history is shrouded in mystery, mainly
because Rome didn’t want any of its enemies to Archimedes
find out about it. Meaning ‘wild ass’, because it had 287BCE-212BCE, GREEK
As well as being a physicist,
a tendency to buck up when launching its huge
inventor and astronomer,
projectiles, the onager design would later be used Archimedes was a brilliant engineer.
as the templateforcatapultsintheMiddleAges. During the Roman conquest of Sicily in
214BCE, he was tasked with defending
The rope used on onagers BALLISTA 323BCE the city of Syracuse. To do so, he
was made of horse hair, created huge catapults and other
and if that wasn’t available, Alexander the Great is believed to b siege engines that kept the
human hair Romans at bay for over
the first leaders to lay siege to his en
a year.
and the ballista was one of the engi
his armoury. As with many things G
The arm of
the ballista was taken on by the Rom a trebuchet
and used to great effect in their con could be up to
of Europe. Using a torsion spring, th 18m (60ft) in
length and hurl
engine would launch 1.8-metre (six-f its projectiles
long bolts at defenders to knock the more than
274m (900ft)
battlements. It could be used equally
defence of a siege to take out advan
attackers. The ballista was in use un
Medieval era, when it was supersede
larger, more destructive weaponry.

GREAT BOMBARD 1422
The prize siege device of the Ottomans,
the bronze bombard fired huge
300-kilogram (660-pound) stone TREBUCHET 12TH CENTURY
balls more than 1,600 metres (5,250
feet) into the air. Manned by a The king of Medieval siege engines, when a
crew of ten, it was instrumental in trebuchet was assembled, the defenders knew
capturing the city of Constantinople they were in for a tough battle. Larger, stronger
from the Byzantine Empire. Also and overall more destructive than a bog-standard
known as the Dardanelles Gun, the huge catapult, it was first invented in China and became
artillery piece was famous for protecting widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages.
the narrow strait of the same name. The As well as stones and rubble, a trebuchet could
gun was so integral to warfare that it has launch Greek fire into battlements along with dead
been described as helping to end the age of animals, used to spread disease within the castle
The first bombards took an walls. With its innovative use of counterweights,
hour to reload, and defenders Feudalism and bring about the Renaissance.
could repair walls as quickly It was used as late as the 19th century. trebuchets were the pinnacle of siege weaponry
as they were demolished until the invention of gunpowder.
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