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Roman Siege Weapons
Roman Siege Weapons
Roman Siege Weapons
or artillery were used both for hurling missiles in battle,
and for the attack on fortresses. The Roman Siege Weapons
included the following:The Tormentum *** The Ballista *** The Testudo *** The Vinea (arbor-sheds) *** The Helepolis *** The Turris *** The Battering Ram
The Wild Ass (Onager)
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Tormentum
The tormentum, which was an
elastic instrument, discharged stones and darts, and was
held in general use until the discovery of gunpowder. In
besieging a city, the ram was employed for destroying the
lower part of a wall, and the balista, which discharged
stones, was used to overthrow the battlements.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Ballista aka Scorpion
The Ballista, or Scorpion would project
a stone weighing from fifty to three hundred pounds. The
Ballista was developed from earlier Greek crossbows.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Onager (Wild Ass)
The wild ass (onager) which
hurled small stones.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Aries or Battering Ram
The aries, or battering-ram, consisted of a large beam made of
the trunk of a tree, frequently one hundred feet in length,
to one end of which was fastened a mace of iron or bronze
resembling in form the head of a ram; it was often suspended
by ropes from a beam fixed transversely over it, so that the
soldiers were relieved from supporting its weight, and were
able to give it a rapid and forcible swinging motion
backward and forward.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Testudo
When the ballista was
further perfected by rigging it upon wheels, and
constructing over it a roof, so as to form a testudo, which
protected the besieging party from the assaults of the
besieged, there was no tower so strong, no wall so thick, as
to resist a long-continued attack, the great length of the
beam enabling the soldiers to work across the defensive
ditch, and as many as one hundred men being often employed
upon it. The Romans learned from the Greeks the art of
building this formidable engine, which was used with great
effect by Alexander, but with still greater by Titus in the
siege of Jerusalem; it was first used by the Romans in the
siege of Syracuse.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Vinea
The vinea was a sort of
roof under which the soldiers protected themselves when they
undermined walls.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Helepolis
The helepolis, also used in
the attack on cities, was a square tower furnished with all
the means of assault. This also was a Greek invention; and
the one used by Demetrius at the siege of Rhodes, B. C. 306,
was one hundred and thirty-five feet high and sixty-eight
wide, divided into nine stories.
Roman Siege Weapons - The
Turris
The turris, a tower of the
same class as the helepolis, was used both by Greeks and
Romans, and even by Asiatics. Mithridates used one at the
siege of Cyzicus which was one hundred and fifty feet in height. These
most formidable engines were generally made of beams of wood
covered on three sides with iron and sometimes with
rawhides. They were higher than the walls and all the other
fortifications of a besieged place, and divided into stories
pierced with windows; in and upon them were stationed
archers and slingers, and in the lower story was a
battering-ram. The soldiers in the turris were also provided
with scaling-ladders, sometimes on wheels; so that when the
top of the wall was cleared by means of the turris, it might
be scaled by means of the ladders. It was impossible to
resist these powerful engines except by burning them, or by
undermining the ground upon which they stood, or by
overturning them with stones or iron-shod beams hung from a
mast on the wall, or by increasing the height of the wall,
or by erecting temporary towers on the wall beside them.
Roman Siege Weapons
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