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Scorpio (dart-thrower)
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 and engineer Vitruvius in the 1st century BC and by the 4th century AD officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus.Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Roman History'', XXIII:4. Design Two versions are known: a horizontal two-armed variety like a ballista and a one-armed, vertical version otherwise referred to as an ''onager''. The fourth century army officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus witnessed the use of ''scorpiones'' during several engagements in the Persian wars of Constantius II, and described the one-armed version as synonymous with the ''onager'', with the vertical upraised arm as the 'scorpion's sting'. The complexity of construction and in particular the torsion springs (which the Romans referred to as ''tormenta'') led to great sensitivity to any variation in temperature or moisture, which limited their use. Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osprey Publishing
Osprey Publishing is a British, Oxford-based, publishing company specializing in military history. Predominantly an illustrated publisher, many of their books contain full-colour artwork plates, maps and photographs, and the company produces over a dozen ongoing series, each focusing on a specific aspect of the history of warfare. Osprey has published over 2,300 books. They are best known for their ''Men-at-Arms'' series, running to over 500 titles, with each book dedicated to a specific historical army or military unit. Osprey is an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. History In the 1960s, the Brooke Bond Tea Company began including a series of military aircraft cards with packages of their tea. The cards proved popular, and the artist Dick Ward proposed the idea of publishing illustrated books about military aircraft. The idea was approved and a small subsidiary company called Osprey was formed in 1968. The company’s first book, ''North American P-51D Mustang in USAAF-USAF Ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheiroballistra
The ''cheiroballistra'' ( el, χειροβαλλίστρα) or ''manuballista'' (Latin), which translates in all its forms to "hand ballista", was an imperial-era Roman siege engine. Designed by Hero of Alexandria and mostly composed of metal (the spring mechanism and the skeins), it shot bolts that were smaller than those in other forms of ballistae and generally made of metal. It was the next major improvement after the '' scorpio''.Warry, J. (1995). ''Warfare in the Classical World''. ''P. 178'' Salamander Books Ltd., London: United Kingdom. . The name of the weapon is composed of the Greek words for 'hand' and 'shooter' implying that portable versions might also have existed, similar to crossbows. See also * Roman siege engines Roman siege engines were, for the most part, adapted from Hellenistic siege technology. Relatively small efforts were made to develop the technology; however, the Romans brought an unrelentingly aggressive style to siege warfareGoldsworthy 2000: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artillery Battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships. Land usage Historically the term "battery" referred to a cluster of cannon in action as a group, either in a temporary field position during a battle or at the siege of a fortress or a city. Such batteries could be a mixture of cannon, howitzer, or mortar types. A siege could involve many batteries at different sites around the besieged place. The term also came to be used for a group of cannon in a fixed fortification, for coastal or frontier defence. During the 18th century "battery" began to be used as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballistae
The ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα ''ballistra'' and that from βάλλω ''ballō'', "throw"), plural ballistae, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancient missile weapon that launched either bolts or stones at a distant target. Developed from earlier Greek weapons, it relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with torsion springs instead of a tension prod (the bow part of a modern crossbow). The springs consisted of several loops of twisted skeins. Early versions projected heavy darts or spherical stone projectiles of various sizes for siege warfare. It developed into a smaller precision weapon, the '' scorpio'', and possibly the ''polybolos''. Greek weapon The early ballistae in Ancient Greece were developed from two weapons called oxybeles and gastraphetes. The gastraphetes ('belly-bow') was a handheld crossbow. It had a composite prod and was spanned by bracing the front end of the weapon against the ground while placing the end of a slider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Column Of Marcus Aurelius
The Column of Marcus Aurelius ( la, Columna Centenaria Divorum Marci et Faustinae, it, Colonna di Marco Aurelio) is a Roman victory column in Piazza Colonna, Rome, Italy. It is a Doric column featuring a spiral relief: it was built in honour of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and modeled on Trajan's Column. Construction Because the original dedicatory inscription has been destroyed, it is not known whether it was built during the emperor's reign (on the occasion of the triumph over the Marcomanni, Quadi and Sarmatians in the year 176) or after his death in 180; however, an inscription found in the vicinity attests that the column was completed by 193. In terms of the topography of ancient Rome, the column stood on the north part of the Campus Martius, in the centre of a square. This square was either between the temple of Hadrian (probably the Hadrianeum) and the temple of Marcus Aurelius (dedicated by his son Commodus, of which nothing now remains – it was probably on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column ( it, Colonna Traiana, la, Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, which depicts the wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern. The structure is about in height, including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of . The frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 steps provides access to a viewing deck at the top. The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, and ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centuria
''Centuria'' (, plural ''centuriae'') is a Latin term (from the stem ''centum'' meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men. The size of the century changed over time, and from the first century BC through most of the imperial era the standard size of a centuria was 80 men. A ''centuria'' is also a Roman unit of land area corresponding to 100 '' heredia''. Roman use Political In the political context the ''centuria'' was the constituent voting unit in the assembly of the centuries (Latin ''comitia centuriata''), an old form of popular assembly in the Roman Republic, the members of which cast one collective vote. Its origin seems to be the homonymous military unit. The comitia centuriata elected important magistrates like consuls and praetors. Military History The ''centuria'' dates all the way back to the earliest armies of the Roman Kingdom being described in Plutarch's account of the life Romulus, however it is only mentioned in passi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Legion
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period of the Roman Empire (27 BC – AD 476). Size The size of a typical legion varied throughout the history of ancient Rome, with complements ranging from 4,200 legionaries and 300 equites (drawn from the wealthier classes – in early Rome all troops provided their own equipment) in the Republican period of Rome (the infantry were split into 10 cohorts each of four maniples of 120 legionaries), to 4,800 legionaries (in 10 cohorts of 6 centuries of 80 legionaries) during Caesar's age, to 5,280 men plus 120 auxiliaries in the Imperial period (split into 10 cohorts, nine of 480 men each, with the first cohort being double-strength at 960 men). It should be noted the above numbers are typical field strengths while "paper strength" was sli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carroballista
Carroballista was an ancient, cart-mounted ballista, a type of mobile field artillery. According to the Roman author Vegetius (''Epitoma rei militaris'' II.25), each legion had 55 ''carroballistae'' (one per ''centuria'') which were arrow/bolt-shooter of the ''cheiroballistra'' type. Vegetius tells us that each ''carroballista'' was carried by mules and operated by one ''contubernium'' (i.e., eight soldiers commanded by one ''decanus''). Surviving representation of a ''carroballista'' are from the bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column (Scene XL and Scenes LXV/LXVI) and the Column of Marcus Aurelius. Structure The structure of the ''carroballista'' machine is identical to that of the ''cheiroballistra'' or ''manuballista''. It seems that the technical innovations introduced by the adoption of the ''cheiroballistra'' by the Roman army at the end of the 1st century AD made the use of the cart possible. In fact, the light but stout metal spring-frame and the wider space in the frontal pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vegetius
Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also referred to as '' De re militari''), and the lesser-known ''Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae'', a guide to veterinary medicine. He identifies himself in the opening of his work ''Epitoma rei militaris'' as a Christian. Dating of work The latest event alluded to in his ''Epitoma rei militaris'' is the death of the Emperor Gratian (383); the earliest attestation of the work is a ''subscriptio'' by Flavius Eutropius, writing in Constantinople in 450, which appears in one of two families of manuscripts, suggesting that a division of the manuscript tradition had already occurred. Despite Eutropius' location in Constantinople, the scholarly consensus is that Vegetius wrote in the Western Roman Empire.Walter Goffart. The date and purposes of Vegetius' D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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