Ancient Roman Artillery: The people of the ancient Rome were quite formidable and this was achieved by the weapons which were highly sophisticated.
It is quite difficult to identify all the artilleries that were used by the ancient Romans.
Ancient Roman Artillery
The weapons included bolt shooting and stone-throwing catapults, longbows and composite bows, mechanical crossbows, etc.
The Romans had adopted the artilleries that were invented by the Greeks. These Greek engineers had invented catapults that were powered by very high tension and also with the help of the twisted ropes. There has been quite a remarkable amount of such technology that has been preserved and has been kept in quite a good condition.
Moderatus is the society’s Roman Artillery officer and he has done a lot of research on the available texts and has understood each of these instruments in quite details.
1. Vitruvius ballista
This is a form of ballista and it is a machine that is used for stone throwing. This is the smallest form of a stone-throwing machine that was used quite widely by the Roman army. It weighs around 2 pounds and it is quite convenient to carry it from place to place.
The stones are helpful in breaking and knowing down the walls. It is very useful if there is a group of warriors that are staying tone place. This will help in hurting them.
2. Stone-throwing catapults
This was a large form of stone-throwing machine. This threw large stones and threw at a high speed. This was very useful both for self-defense and also for attacking the enemy.
This is large and also very heavy and so it is not portable. It is usually fixed at a strategic location and the stone throwing is done from there.
3. The semi-automatic catapult
According to the available description about this kind of catapult, it is a bolt shooting machine that was designed by Alexander in the 3rd century.
The unique feature that it has is that it offers fire at a rate that is at least 3 times higher than what is provided by and normal catapult.
4. Oranger
The word oranger is Latin and it means wild ass. It has a very high firing capacity and it can fire up to a level of 150lbs. It is sometimes also loaded with a large number of stones. The range of this machine is quite low and it cannot target places too far away.
Roman Torsion Artillery
Ancient Romans Peoples adopted the torsion artillery invented by Greece engineers. Roman Artillery and Greece artillery is the good understood of many more branches of ancient applied technology.
More weapons were indicative of the general decline in the torsion artillery in the empire and it would be many more centuries until the field of war once more saw artillery with the accuracy and sophistication that the Roman had been able to field.