A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines.[1] A catapult uses the sudden release of stored potential energy to propel its payload. Most convert tension or torsion energy that was more slowly and manually built up within the device before release, via springs, bows, twisted rope, elastic, or any of numerous other materials and mechanisms. The counterweight trebuchet is a type of catapult that uses gravity.[2]
In use since ancient times, the catapult has proven to be one of the most persistently effective mechanisms in warfare. In modern times the term can apply to devices ranging from a simple hand-held implement (also called a "slingshot") to a mechanism for launching aircraft from a ship.
The earliest catapults date to at least the 4th century BC with the advent of the mangonel in ancient China, a type of traction trebuchet and catapult.[3][4] Early uses were also attributed to Ajatashatru of Magadha in his war against the Licchavis.[5] Greek catapults were invented in the early 4th century BC, being attested by Diodorus Siculus as part of the equipment of a Greek army in 399 BC, and subsequently used at the siege of Motya in 397 BC.[6][7]
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Greek and Roman catapult
The catapult and crossbow in Greece are closely intertwined. Primitive catapults were essentially "the product of relatively straightforward attempts to increase the range and penetrating power of missiles by strengthening the bow which propelled them".[15] The historian Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC), described the invention of a mechanical arrow-firing catapult (katapeltikon) by a Greek task force in 399 BC.[16][17] The weapon was soon after employed against Motya (397 BC), a key Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily.[18][19] Diodorus is assumed to have drawn his description from the highly rated[20] history of Philistus, a contemporary of the events then. The introduction of crossbows however, can be dated further back: according to the inventor Hero of Alexandria (fl. 1st century AD), who referred to the now lost works of the 3rd-century BC engineer Ctesibius, this weapon was inspired by an earlier foot-held crossbow, called the gastraphetes, which could store more energy than the Greek bows. A detailed description of the gastraphetes, or the "belly-bow",[21][page needed] along with a watercolor drawing, is found in Heron's technical treatise Belopoeica.[22][23]
A third Greek author, Biton (fl. 2nd century BC), whose reliability has been positively reevaluated by recent scholarship,[17][24][page needed] described two advanced forms of the gastraphetes, which he credits to Zopyros, an engineer from southern Italy. Zopyrus has been plausibly equated with a Pythagorean of that name who seems to have flourished in the late 5th century BC.[25][a] He probably designed his bow-machines on the occasion of the sieges of Cumae and Milet between 421 BC and 401 BC.[28][29] The bows of these machines already featured a winched pull back system and could apparently throw two missiles at once.[19]
Philo of Byzantium provides probably the most detailed account on the establishment of a theory of belopoietics (belos = "projectile"; poietike = "(art) of making") circa 200 BC. The central principle to this theory was that "all parts of a catapult, including the weight or length of the projectile, were proportional to the size of the torsion springs". This kind of innovation is indicative of the increasing rate at which geometry and physics were being assimilated into military enterprises.[21][page needed]
From the mid-4th century BC onwards, evidence of the Greek use of arrow-shooting machines becomes more dense and varied: arrow firing machines (katapaltai) are briefly mentioned by Aeneas Tacticus in his treatise on siegecraft written around 350 BC.[19] An extant inscription from the Athenian arsenal, dated between 338 and 326 BC, lists a number of stored catapults with shooting bolts of varying size and springs of sinews.[30] The later entry is particularly noteworthy as it constitutes the first clear evidence for the switch to torsion catapults, which are more powerful than the more-flexible crossbows and which came to dominate Greek and Roman artillery design thereafter.[31] This move to torsion springs was likely spurred by the engineers of Philip II of Macedonia.[21][page needed] Another Athenian inventory from 330 to 329 BC includes catapult bolts with heads and flights.[30] As the use of catapults became more commonplace, so did the training required to operate them. Many Greek children were instructed in catapult usage, as evidenced by "a 3rd Century B.C. inscription from the island of Ceos in the Cyclades [regulating] catapult shooting competitions for the young".[21] Arrow firing machines in action are reported from Philip II's siege of Perinth (Thrace) in 340 BC.[32] At the same time, Greek fortifications began to feature high towers with shuttered windows in the top, which could have been used to house anti-personnel arrow shooters, as in Aigosthena.[33] Projectiles included both arrows and (later) stones that were sometimes lit on fire. Onomarchus of Phocis first used catapults on the battlefield against Philip II of Macedon.[34] Philip's son, Alexander the Great, was the next commander in recorded history to make such use of catapults on the battlefield[35] as well as to use them during sieges.[36]
The Romans started to use catapults as arms for their wars against Syracuse, Macedon, Sparta and Aetolia (3rd and 2nd centuries BC). The Roman machine known as an arcuballista was similar to a large crossbow.[37][38][39] Later the Romans used ballista catapults on their warships.
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