Ballista - Roman artillery in action Roman army display by The Ermine Street Guard. Missile launcher

A display of Roman army war machines showing the deadly missile launcher, the Ballista. Watch the excellent Ermine Street Guard Roman reenactors using a reconstructed full-scale Roman Ballista.

Roman Artillery

The Roman Empire was built in part upon it’s military strengths. The Roman Army was a formidable force, efficient, organised, highly trained and with excellent equipment. Artillery was a key part of the success of the Roman army. Catapults gave the Romans an overwhelming advantage over their enemies, both in attack and defence. Warfare in Roman times was brutal and the Roman artillery was capable of inflicting death, injury and significant damage to the enemy.

Roman Britain

During the Romans invasion of Britain their method of attack was firstly an artillery assault to weaken the defences and enemy, followed by an infantry attack. There is evidence that catapults were used during the sieges of a number of hill forts by Vespasian and the Legion ll Augusta at Hod Hill and Maiden Castle, during the early stages of the Claudian invasion. The defences of the Briton’s hill forts were useless against the firepower of the Roman artillery. There is also evidence of artillery platforms being built on bastions at forts such as Richborough, designed to house defensive artillery.

Roman artillery came in many shapes and sizes. The Romans adapted and improved the original Greek designs. There were two types of artillery, the first using a crossbow principle (scorpio) and the second a heavy catapult (onager).

The Ballista

The ballista was a Roman war machine using the crossbow principle that launched either bolts or stones at a distant target. It used two levers with torsion springs made of several loops of twisted skeins. At the back,was a pair of 'winches' and a 'claw,' used to ratchet the bowstring back to the armed firing position. The main stand had a slider on the top, into which were loaded the bolts or stone shot projectiles.

The Romans used the catapult type of artillery in siege warfare to fire huge rocks into enemy positions and destroy the walls, so the infantry could gain entry. The ballista was used in a different way, the Romans used the ballista to kill and injure the people within the fort, rather than damage the surrounding walls.

The construction of the ballista was similar to the Roman bow. The flexible arms that projected from each side at the front were made from layers of thin wood strips. These layers were constructed in such a way that the grain of the wood in a layer was at an angle to the layers on either side.

The ballista came in a range of sizes with arms anywhere from 2 feet to 4 feet. Using reconstructed small baliistae, a 1 pound missile could be fired at least 300 yards. This was far outside the range of enemy bowmen who could only fire the arrows to a distance of about 110 yards.

The Ermine Street Guard
The Roman re-enactors featured in this film are the excellent Ermine Street Guard who put on displays throughout the year at various Roman sites in Great Britain and Europe and are well worth going to see them in action. Check out their website for details:

http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/

They have been running since the 1970s and have established a strong reputation as
one of the leading groups of Roman Army reenactors, paying careful attention
to detail and authenticity of everything they do, including armour, weapons and
equipment. The displays include aspects of the Roman soldier's training, the shooting
of artillery pieces and a static army camp display. Occasionally they are also joined
by fully equipped Roman cavalrymen.

Music credits: Courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

To All the Glory by Howard Harper Barnes

The Proving Grounds by Dragon Tamer

One Last Battle by Edgar Hopp

Sound effects

Soldiers marching courtesy of soundbible.com

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Film © MrFord4210