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Paul Wilson

Professor Masters

Hist 134

10/23/2022

Siege Engines

I am going to tell you a little about the best invention in military history that changed the

way wars were won. This is called the siege engine. After this paper you will know when they

were invented and who used them the most. What kind there was and how effective they were.

Also, how the developed into today’s siege weapons. So, siege weapons are scary looking

weapons of mass destruction.

In history it is shown the Spartans used battering rams as siege engines. Also, they were

used in the middle kingdom of Egypt. The Assyrians used these engines to. So did the

Carthaginians. Throughout history many ancient people used a siege engine of some type, but it

seems they weren’t widely used until Philip II and Alexander the Great came along. These two

rulers used these nasty weapons of war as much as they could and when they could. Why

wouldn’t they. Once they realized the sheer power these devices had for bringing down enemy

walls or wiping out troops, or scaling walls. The use and development of the siege engines were

pretty expensive for the Greeks until the two rulers came along and invented a new catapult. This

made the use a lot easier and less expensive. The invention of the siege engine is kind of like

when the first tank was invented by the British and the enemy didn’t know what it was at first

and was terrified. That’s what the siege engine was to these guys. This was a mobile platform of

death and destruction that was able to take down enemy walls or defenses with minimal losses on
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the friendly side. This led to several different versions of siege engines, and they all had different

uses for them.

The first siege engine was invented by one Dionysius I of Syracuse around 399 BC. Now

there are 3 types of the catapult that are really common among history. Now the catapult is a It

was essentially a larger composite bow that required two hands to operate, earning the name

gastraphetes or belly shooter. Now it had a range of about 250 yards and was eventually

modified for 300 yards. It was also made easier to support by being attached to a stand and they

put a winch on it to make it easier to fire. The first of these engines is called the Trebuchet. This

looks like a giant slingshot wit ha arm on it. It had a 60-foot arm that had a large counterweight

on one end and a giant sling on the other end. They could put rocks, sand, stone, or earth in it to

launch. Some history has been found that they could launch 250lbs of rocks 250 ft and they were

the most accurate out of the siege engines. They used these up into the medieval ages that’s how

popular they were. If you have ever seen lord of the rings return of the king, you will see the city

of minas Tirith using trebuchets on the walls to launch rocks at the invading armies of Sauron.

The next type of catapult is called the Ballista which is a giant crossbow more or less. It could

fire huge bolts that were 6ft or longer in length and took a couple of people to load the bolt. It

was used to shoot flaming bolts over walls of cities. There were also other variations of it made

like ones called scorpions which fire incendiary bolts. They also mounted these onto Greek

ships. They didn’t work to well at killing infantry the regular ballistae didn’t anyway. There

wasn’t enough power behind them. The were launched by a spring. After newer technology they

developed a bigger version of it called oxybelles. Then the romans used smaller versions of it,

and it eventually became outdated due to resource requirements to maintain it. Then the

invention of the magonel killed the ballista. The magonel was a Torsion powered catapult. This
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means that there was twists springs of hair or sinew as the bow is pulled back. This allowed the

projectiles to fly even further then they have before. This was thought to have been developed

around 350 BC. These engines were able to launch stone weighing 1 talent which I s about 57

lbs. Later on, they could hold 3 times the amount and launch it. They had about a 1300 ft range.

These catapults became so popular that there were competitions in the schools to make these.

They would have shooting competitions and the best designs were picked by guys like Philip the

2nd. That is all for the catapults if you follow them through history then you can see that they

eventually evolve into cannon then into artillery guns. The next engine was very interesting.

Now you have siege towers these were massive towers that were armored and loaded

with troops or other siege engines ready to storm the castle walls. The first invention was by a

guy named Demetrius. He invented a tower called a helepoleis. His first tower was 135ft tall and

had 9 stories on it each one large and small stone throwing catapults on it. He used this to clear

the walls and of the city so he could bring up his rams safely, but it got set on fire very easy. The

next ones were built different he loaded it with heavy iron plates to act as armor t protect it. This

required 3400 men to move it This all happened while he was besieging Rhodes. Eventually he

earned the nickname Demtrius the Besieger. Those weren’t the only towers though there were

towers that had infantry in them to scale walls. These siege engines were adapted over time by

everyone and had many improvements done to them. Whether it made them deadlier or more

agile and cheaper to build. Everything always gets improved over time. Now you can see how

they evolved into modern times.

The modern siege engine came from the ancient Greek ones. They have changed a lot but

like everything else in our world it came from Greek or Latin or some other ancient civilization.

The catapults of todays world would be the artillery guns that we use both the mobile ones and
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the stationary. They still launch big projectiles capable of destroying targets they just have bigger

payloads and much better accuracy and range then their cousins. The ballistae are pretty much

crossbows now. The siege towers would be tank or armored personnel carriers they just aren’t

100 feet tall. Our wars are not fought in castles anymore. It is fascinating how our modern

weapons of war come from the ones that the ancient people of the times were using. Imagine if

they were this developed back then what we would have today. It would be a very scary thing.

Siege weapons or Engines are scary weapons of destruction.

Works Cited

Chapman, Christian. A History of Siege Weapons. 2008, www.chapmankids.net/reports/

CDC_SiegeEngineReport2008.pdf.

“Siege Warfare | Hellenisitic Innovations of War.” Sites.psu.edu, sites.psu.edu/hellenisticinnova-

tions/siege-warfare/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

“The History of Siege Engines - Archery.” Doczz.net, doczz.net/doc/3558323/the-history-of-

siege-engines. Accessed 24 Oct. 2022.

“Torsion Siege Engine - History - Greek.” Www.liquisearch.com, 2022, www.liquisearch.com/

torsion_siege_engine/history/greek.

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