A lithobolos () refers to any mechanical artillery weapon used and/or referred to as a stone thrower in

ancient warfare Ancient warfare is war that was conducted from the beginning of recorded history to the end of the ancient period. The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is more organization oriented than technology oriented. The development of ...

. Typically this referred to engines that propel a stone along a flat track with two rigid bow arms powered by torsion (twisted cord), in particular all sizes of palintonon. However, Charon of Magnesia referred to his flexion (bow) stone-thrower engine, a

gastraphetes The gastraphetes (), also called belly bow or belly shooter, was a hand-held crossbow used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the 1st century by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his work ''Belopoeica'', which draws on an earlier ac ...

shooting 5–6 mina (), as a lithobolos; Isidoros of Abydos reportedly built a larger version shooting . Also, the euthytonon, a single-arm torsion catapult, was referred to by contemporaries as a stone-thrower, as was its Roman evolution the

onager The onager (, ) (''Equus hemionus''), also known as hemione or Asiatic wild ass, is a species of the family Equidae native to Asia. A member of the subgenus ''Asinus'', the onager was Scientific description, described and given its binomial name ...

. Stone-throwers of the same class looked alike, with their stone capacity scaling mostly with overall size. Machine dimensions can be approximated mathematically based on the equivalent spring diameter.

History

Buddhist texts record that King

Ajatashatru Ajatasattu (Pāli: ) or Ajatashatru (Sanskrit: ) in the Buddhist tradition, or Kunika () and Kuniya () in the Jain tradition (reigned c. 492 to 460 BCE, or c. 405 to 373 BCE), was one of the most important kings of the Haryanka dynasty of Mag ...

Magadha Magadha was a region and kingdom in ancient India, based in the eastern Ganges Plain. It was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Second Urbanization period. The region was ruled by several dynasties, which overshadowed, conquered, and ...

as having commissioned stone-throwers (''mahāśilākaṇṭaka'') in his campaign against the Licchavis in the 5th century BCE. The first recorded European stone-thrower machines were used by the armies of

Philip of Macedon Philip II of Macedon (; 382 BC – October 336 BC) was the king (''basileus'') of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia from 359 BC until his death in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, founders of the ancient kingdom, and the fat ...

and

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

. Polydias, Charias, and Diades of Pella, are the three engineers recorded designing machines for these armies, with Diades engineering at the sieges of Halicarnassus (334 BC) and Gaza (332 BC). According to the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

engineer

Philo of Byzantium Philo of Byzantium (, ''Phílōn ho Byzántios'', ), also known as Philo Mechanicus (Latin for "Philo the Engineer"), was a Greek engineer, physicist and writer on mechanics, who lived during the latter half of the 3rd century BC. Although he wa ...

, the typical effective range against fortifications was with a load of ; at that distance, walls had to be thick to withstand the impact. Anti-personnel lithoboloi hurled much smaller balls, though arrow-shooters like the scorpio were preferred for these purposes. Super-heavy lithoboloi such as those fielded by

Demetrius I Poliorcetes 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, ...

at the

Siege of Rhodes (305 BC) Siege of Rhodes may refer to one of the following sieges of the island of Rhodes: * Siege of Rhodes (305–304 BC), by Demetrius I of Macedon * Siege of Rhodes (88 BC), siege by Mithridates VI of Pontus in the First Mithridatic War * Hospitaller ...

threw stones of up to and could be brought close to the walls in siege-towers. Balls of such size were found in small numbers in the arsenals of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

and

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north s ...

, corroborating ancient reports of their use. The Roman artillery engineer

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 Renaissan ...

provided measurements for even more powerful stone-throwers, but it is not known whether these were ever used in combat. Modern experiments show that smaller projectiles could be hurled at least , while ancient authors record maximum ranges of as much as . Siege engines of all types have been recorded as mounted on ships, with perhaps their first successful use at the

Battle of Salamis (306 BCE) The naval Battle of Salamis in 306 BC took place off Salamis, Cyprus between the fleets of Ptolemy I of Egypt and Antigonus I Monophthalmus, two of the Diadochi, the generals who, after the death of Alexander the Great, fought each other for c ...

under the command of Demetrius I Poliorcetes. The enormous transport ''

Syracusia ''Syracusia'' (, ''syrakousía'', literally "of Syracuse") was an ancient Greek ship sometimes claimed to be the largest transport ship of antiquity. She was reportedly too big for any port in Sicily, and thus only sailed once from Syracuse in ...

'' possibly had the largest ship-mounted catapult of the ancient world, an machine that could fire arrows or stones up to . During the

Siege of Syracuse (214–212 BCE) A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characte ...

, the Greek defenders used a barrage of machines developed by

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

, including powerful stone-throwing ballistas. Archimedes had the record for the largest stone launched in the ancient world; from a ship-mounted engine, reported at three talents (). Other Greco-Roman engineers and recorders of lithoboloi include

Zopyrus of Tarentum Zopyrus (; ) (died 484/3 BC) was a Persian nobleman mentioned in Herodotus' ''Histories''. He was son of Megabyzus I, who helped Darius I in his ascension. According to Herodotus, when Babylon revolted against the rule of Darius I, Zopyrus dev ...

, Charon of Magnesia,

Biton Biton (Hebrew: ביטון) is a Maghrebi Jewish surname which is common in Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jorda ...

Ctesibius Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius (; BCE) was a Greek inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. Very little is known of Ctesibius' life, but his inventions were well known in his lifetime. He was likely the first head of th ...

, the engineer Dionysius of Alexandria, and

Hero of Alexandria Hero of Alexandria (; , , also known as Heron of Alexandria ; probably 1st or 2nd century AD) was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria in Egypt during the Roman era. He has been described as the greatest experimental ...

Variants

The Roman

, a catapult powered by rope torsion, was sometimes referred to as a stone-thrower. Archimedes reportedly designed a steam-powered gun to shoot spherical projectiles using the same principle of gas pressure as a gunpowder cannon.

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

drew a design for a steam gun that he named "Architronito", citing Archimedes.

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

first observed the phenomenon of

aerodynamic heating Aerodynamic heating is the heating of a solid body produced by its high-speed passage through air. In science and engineering, an understanding of aerodynamic heating is necessary for predicting the behaviour of meteoroids which enter the Earth's ...

in the slight melting of the face of lead bullets thrown from ancient catapults and ballistas, using this to make some correct deductions of the physics of gases and temperature.Lanahas cites:

References

Bibliography

*Duncan B. Campbell and Brian Delf, ''Greek and Roman Artillery 399 BC–AD 363'', New Vanguard series 89, Osprey Publishing Ltd., Oxford 2003.

External links

* Source cited for blueprints. Source for images: * More photos and details at
Legion XXIV made Palintonon reconstruction
* Digital reproduction ad with diagrams:
Palintonon image
{{Ancient mechanical artillery and hand-held missile weapons Ancient Greek artillery

History

Variants

See also

References

Bibliography

External links