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Helepolis
Helepolis (, meaning: "Taker of Cities") is the Greek name for a movable siege tower. The most famous was that invented by Polyidus of Thessaly, and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens, for the Siege of Rhodes (305 BC). Descriptions of it were written by Diodorus Siculus, Vitruvius, Plutarch, and in the Athenaeus Mechanicus. Description The Helepolis was essentially a large tapered tower, with each side about high, and wide that was manually pushed into battle. It rested on eight wheels, each high and also had casters, to allow lateral movement as well as direct. The three exposed sides were rendered fireproof with iron plates, and stories divided the interior, connected by two broad flights of stairs, one for ascent and one for descent. The machine weighed , and required 3,400 men working in relays to move it, 200 turning a large capstan (nautical), capstan driving the wheels via a belt, and the rest pushing from behind. The casters permitted lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helepolis Siege Tower, 4th Century BC, Greece (model)
Helepolis (, meaning: "Taker of Cities") is the Greek name for a movable siege tower. The most famous was that invented by Polyidus of Thessaly, and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens, for the Siege of Rhodes (305 BC). Descriptions of it were written by Diodorus Siculus, Vitruvius, Plutarch, and in the Athenaeus Mechanicus. Description The Helepolis was essentially a large tapered tower, with each side about high, and wide that was manually pushed into battle. It rested on eight wheels, each high and also had casters, to allow lateral movement as well as direct. The three exposed sides were rendered fireproof with iron plates, and stories divided the interior, connected by two broad flights of stairs, one for ascent and one for descent. The machine weighed , and required 3,400 men working in relays to move it, 200 turning a large capstan driving the wheels via a belt, and the rest pushing from behind. The casters permitted lateral movement, so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epimachus Of Athens
Epimachus of Athens (, c. 300 BC) was a renowned Athenian engineer and architectSmith, W. p.563 who is known to have constructed the Helepolis (literally, ''Taker of Cities''), a huge siege machine first conceptualised by Demetrius I of Macedon and built to be employed in the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes.Campbell, D.B. p.83 Life Few particular details are known about Epimachus of Athens' life. He built other unique siege weapons, aside from the Helepolis, some for Demetrius I of Macedon, and others for various other leaders and warlords. Of these other siege weapons was a large battering ram over 60 metres long. Many of his creations had visible effects on future siege engineering, hundreds of years later, and the design for the Helepolis in particular had effects on future designs; the term Helepolis endured for many centuries after the "original", used for any similar, tower-like siege machine. The Helepolis The design for the Helepolis was based on that of an earlier and sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Largest Machines
This is a list of the world's largest machines, both static and movable in history. Building structure * Large Hadron Collider – The world's largest single machine Ground vehicles Mining vehicles Engineering and transport vehicles Military vehicles Air vehicles Lighter-than-air vehicles Heavier-than-air vehicles Sea vehicles Industrial and cargo vessels Passenger vessels Military vessels Space vehicles Space stations Launch vehicles See also * List of largest passenger vehicles *List of large aircraft References {{DEFAULTSORT:Machines, largest Machines Largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (or ... Technology-related lists Transport-related lists of superlatives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Tower
A Roman siege tower or breaching tower (or in the Middle Ages, a belfry''Castle: Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections''. Dorling Kindersley Pub (T); 1st American edition (September 1994). Siege towers were invented in 300 BC. ) is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archery, archers or crossbowmen to stand on top of the tower and shoot arrows or quarrels into the fortification. Because the towers were wooden and thus flammable, they had to have some non-flammable covering of iron or fresh animal skins. Evidence for use of siege towers in Ancient Egypt and Anatolia dates to the Bronze Age. They were used extensively in warfare of the ancient Near East after the Late Bronze Age collapse, and in Egypt by Kingdom of Kush, Kushites from Sudan who founded the Twenty-fifth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heliopolis (other)
Heliopolis (Greek for "Sun City") may refer to: Places * Heliopolis (ancient Egypt), also known as Heliopolis in Augustamnica * Heliopolis, Cairo, a suburb or district of Cairo, Egypt ** Heliopolis Sporting Club ** Heliopolis University in Cairo ** New Heliopolis * Heliopolis (Lebanon), ancient city also known as Heliopolis Syriaca, Roman Heliopolis, or Heliopolis in Phoenicia; at modern Baalbek in Lebanon *Heliopolis (Athens suburb) or Ilioupoli, a suburb of Athens, Greece *Heliópolis, the largest favela of São Paulo City, Brazil * Heliópolis, Bahia, a municipality in Bahia, Brazil * Héliopolis, Algeria, a town and commune in Algeria *Héliopolis, a town in France situated on the Levant Island * Heliópolis, Seville, neighbourhood of the Bellavista-La Palmera district in Seville, Spain Fictional places * Heliopolis (Marvel Comics), a location in Marvel comics *Heliopolis, a planet in the ''Stargate SG-1'' episode " The Torment of Tantalus" Literature * ''Heliopolis'' (J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trebuchet
A trebuchet () is a type of catapult that uses a hinged arm with a sling attached to the tip to launch a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weights and further distances than a traditional catapult. There are two main types of trebuchet. The first is the ''traction trebuchet'', or mangonel, which uses manpower to swing the arm. It first appeared in China by the 4th century BC. It spread westward, possibly via the Avars, and was adopted by the Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, and other neighboring peoples by the sixth to seventh centuries AD. The later, and often larger and more powerful, counterweight trebuchet, also known as the counterpoise trebuchet, uses a counterweight to swing the arm. It appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the 12th century, and was carried back to China by the Mongols in the 13th century. "Although this is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Engine
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while others have wheels to enable advancing up to the enemy fortification. There are many distinct types, such as siege towers that allow foot soldiers to scale walls and attack the defenders, battering rams that damage walls or gates, and large ranged weapons (such as ballistas, catapults/ trebuchets and other similar constructions) that attack from a distance by launching heavy projectiles. Some complex siege engines were combinations of these types. Siege engines are fairly large constructions – from the size of a small house to a large building. From antiquity up to the development of gunpowder, they were made largely of wood, using rope or leather to help bind them, possibly with a few pieces of metal at key stress points. They could la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demetrius I Of Macedon
Demetrius I Poliorcetes (; , , ; ) was a Macedonian Greek nobleman and military leader who became king of Asia between 306 and 301 BC, and king of Macedon between 294 and 288 BC. A member of the Antigonid dynasty, he was the son of its founder, Antigonus I Monophthalmus, and his wife Stratonice, as well as the first member of the family to rule Macedon in Hellenistic Greece. In 307 BC, Demetrius successfully ousted Cassander's governor of Athens and after defeating Ptolemy I at the Battle of Salamis (306 BC) he gave his father the title of ''basileus'' ("king") over a land spanning from the Aegean Sea to the Middle East. He acquired the title ''Poliorcetes'' ("the besieger") after the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes in 305. While Antigonus I and Demetrius planned a revival of the Hellenic League with themselves as dual hegemons, a coalition of the diadochi; Cassander, Seleucus I, Ptolemy I, and Lysimachus defeated the two at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, in which Antigon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyidus Of Thessaly
Polyidus of Thessaly (also Polyides, Polydus; , , English translation: "much beauty", from ''polus'', "many, much" and ''eidos'', "form, appearance, beauty") was an ancient Greek military engineer of Philip, who made improvements in the covered battering-ram (testudo arietaria, poliorceticus krios) during Philip's siege of Byzantium in 340 BC. His students were Diades of Pella and Charias, who served in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Polyidus was the inventor of Helepolis.Campbell, p. 4. "On campaign, Phillip was accompanied by engineers, one of whom, Polyidus of Thessaly, allegedly developed different types of battering ram. The same engineer was also remembered as the builder of a giant siege tower (''helepolis'') at Byzantium during Philip's siege of 340 BC. Alexander routinely utilised siege machinery, and several of his engineers are also known by name, emphasising, the esteem in which they were held. Indeed, a pupil of Polyidus, named Diades, was known as 'the man wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vitruvius
Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture. It is not clear to what extent his contemporaries regarded his book as original or important. He states that all buildings should have three attributes: , , and ("strength", "utility", and "beauty"), principles reflected in much Ancient Roman architecture. His discussion of perfect proportion in architecture and the human body led to the famous Renaissance drawing of the ''Vitruvian Man'' by Leonardo da Vinci. Little is known about Vitruvius' life, but by his own descriptionDe Arch. Book 1, preface. section 2. he served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the Roman military offices. He probably served as a senior of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Helepolis
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includes anything conducted by surface ships, amphibious ships, submarines, and seaborne aviation, as well as ancillary support, communications, training, and other fields. The strategic offensive role of a navy is projection of force into areas beyond a country's shores (for example, to protect sea-lanes, deter or confront piracy, ferry troops, or attack other navies, ports, or shore installations). The strategic defensive purpose of a navy is to frustrate seaborne projection-of-force by enemies. The strategic task of a navy also may incorporate nuclear deterrence by use of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Naval operations can be broadly divided between riverine and littoral applications (brown-water nav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
