Ballista

Introduction

The Ballista (plural Ballistae) were similar to giant Crossbows but instead of being powered by Tension when drawing back a bow, the Romans developed into a more powerful Torsion device by pulling back on levers set into twisted skeins of rope, hair, or sinew.

The design was based on a huge dart or javelin throwing machine but could easily be modified to shoot rocks for example. The Ballista would loose projectiles with great force along a flat trajectory. The Romans developed them to have range of as much as 460m but their effective combat range was much shorter. Different size Ballistae were built, some smaller versions were called a Scorpions (they would ‘sting’ the enemy) and others were capable of being mounted on the top of a Siege Tower

The Ballista was highly accurate and generally believed they would have been used mainly as anti-personnel weapons, or to destroy light structures, whereas less accurate weapons such as an Onager, could hit reinforced wood or heavy masonry with more force by ejecting heavier munitions.

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Activity: Find out about Roman Siege Equipment (e.g. Vinea, Pluteus, Mantelet, Testudo (model), Musculus, Helepolis, Turris, Corvus, Ballista (aka Scorpion), Onager, Aries (Battering Ram) and construct a working model or models using Stripwood Technology.

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DT Online Buyers' Guide

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Safety Point! Take great care with hot glue guns and all hot-melt glues. The melted glue can stick to the skin and cause severe burns.

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