The Roman Ballista
Posted on | May 5, 2010 | No Comments
The Roman Ballista was used widely throughout the Roman empire from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century AD. Most historians agree that it was used after that but with the decline of the Roman Empire so did the technology. Although the ballista originated in Greece it was adopted by the Romans and advanced beyond the early Greek versions. The most obvious is the change from the compression powered bows to the torsion powered arms. The Romans made much smaller versions with wheels called The Cheiroballistra or The Manuballista. These were used as anti-personnel weapons and were much easier to use.
There is some speculation among archeologists that the Romans may have used a weapon that fired multiple bolts at a time but they have failed to come up with hard proof. You may draw your own conclusion there. However, no matter how you look at it the Roman advances on the ballista were more powerful and required less maintenance with the exception of the torsion springs. These were vulnerable to rain and mud. Since the wood frames were mostly covered with iron they were less sensitive to the elements. Anything made from wood will bend and bow when it gets wet and then the sun beats on it all day. The steel framed and banded ballista didn’t have this problem as long as the springs were covered. Also the act of drawing the bow would sometimes break the compression bow creating an potentially dangerous situation whereas if a torsion spring broke it had many fibers to keep it from being snapped back and causing a hazard to the users.
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