Explore: Siege Engines

rulers to make use of siege engines to a large extent were Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great. Their large engines spurred an evolution that

This is a list of siege engines invented through history. A siege engine is a weapon used to circumvent or destroy fortifications such as defensive walls

Roman siege engines were, for the most part, adapted from Hellenistic siege technology. Relatively small efforts were made to develop the technology;

ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heracleides of Tarentum and was first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of

mostly obsolete. Preceding the development of torsion siege engines were tension siege engines that had existed since at least the beginning of the 4th

The scorpio or scorpion was a type of Roman torsion siege engine and field artillery piece. It was described in detail by the early-imperial Roman architect

A siege tower or breaching tower (or in the Middle Ages, a belfry) is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching

typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as sapping), or the use of

later mangonel, a "traction trebuchet" that replaced torsion powered siege engines in the 6th century AD. According to two authors of the later Roman Empire

attacked with a variety of siege engines but failed to break through the city walls despite days of intense attacks. The siege was maintained for months