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A siege engine is a Device that is designed to Break or circumvent City Wall s and other Fortification s in Siege Warfare . ANCIENT SIEGE ENGINES The earliest siege engine was the Battering Ram , followed by the Catapult in Ancient Greece . The Sparta ns used battering rams in the siege of Plataea in 429 BC , but it seems that the Greeks limited their use of siege engines to assault Ladder s, though Peloponnesian forces used something resembling Flamethrower s. It has recently been proposed that the Trojan Horse was not, as the legends say, a covert container for stealthy attackers, but rather a large battering ram resembling a horse. {Link without Title} The first Mediterranean people to use advanced siege machinery were the Carthaginian s, who used Siege Tower s and battering rams against the Greek colonies of Sicily . These engines influenced the ruler of Syracuse , Dionysius I , who loved to destroy things. Two rulers to make use of siege engines to a large extent were , or to drop against them heavy weights. The Romans preferred to assault enemy walls building earthen ramps (''agger'') or simply scaling the walls, as in the early siege of the Samnite city of Silvium ( 306 BC ). Soldiers working at the ramps were protected by shelters called ''vinea'', that were arranged to form a long corridor. Wicker shields (''plutei'') were used to protect the front of the corridor during its construction. Sometimes the Romans used another engine resembling the Greek ditch-filling tortoise, called a ''musculus'' ("Little mouse"). Battering rams were also widespread. Siege towers were first used by the Roman legions around 200 BC. The first documented occurrence of ancient siege artillery pieces in Europe was the '' Gastraphetes '' ("belly-bow"), a kind of non-torsion bolt-thrower. These were mounted on wooden frames. Greater machines forced the introduction of pulley system for loading the projectiles, which had extended to include stones also. Later torsion systems appeared, based on sinew springs. The Onager was the main Roman invention in the field. |
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