Onager? Way cool, Maurice, I've always wanted a seige engine!
The Onager
Late in the third century CE, Roman artillery craftsmen devised a solution to one of their biggest problems. This problem was the stone throwing Palintones catapult, the biggest of all catapults, called a ballista by the Romans. The largest of these engines were capable of throwing 100 lbs stones more than three hundred yards (13). These engines were extremely complicated to built and because of their size were also difficult to transport. To remedy this problem the Romans created the onager, the engine most people today associate with the word catapult (14).br> Named after a pig that kicks rocks behind itself when chased (15) the onager was much easier to construct and maintain than the palintonos because it was basically half the machine. The frame of the onager was composed of thick rectangular pieces of wood aid flat on the ground. Through each side of the frame were bored two holes through which ran the skeins of rope The ropes were held in place by a washer and counterplate. In the middle of the sinew ropes stuck a single arm that ended in a cup or a sling fitted for a stone. The arm was cranked down with a lever, further torsioning the skein, and was held in place by a ratchet and pawl. When released the arm would snap forward into a supported upright which halted the arm and drove the shot towards its intended target.
Though this machine was much simpler to construct than the Roman stone throwing ballista, it was just as powerful. An experimental onager built in the early twentieth century was able to throw a ten pound stone 350 yards (16) a shot in league with smaller ballista. However, the onager was just as difficult to move as the ballast, and was therefore used as a stationary defensive or siege engine.
13. Flavius Josephus, The History of the Jews. 382.
14. From data gathered in a survey of 100 college educated individuals.
15. Sir Ralph Payne Gallway, The Crossbow, (New York: Brahmall House, 1958) 12.
16. Ibid. 12. |
