Alexander's Ballista

[asimon2006]

I know I wrong for the English Homework. But I need serious help for Alexander's Ballista, I couldn't any info. Do you guys know something about him? I need at least 6 sentences by tonight, please. We are doing a debate on Tuesday in class on the power of armies or the power of ideas.

[moo]

Google is your friend. 0.o

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista

Excerpt: "The stone projectiles themselves varied in size, and could cause immense damage to city walls in their way, while the arrows (bolts) could kill several men at once. Used together, as Alexander did at the Siege of Tyre, in 332 BC, they were capable of causing destruction unlike anything else in the ancient world."

 

If you need more, go to http://www.google.com and type in:

 

+ballista +alexander

 

moo

[sebbysteiny]

You really should be able to find 6 sentences on your own. Next time, ask questions that you can't answer by simply typing it into google first. Why should moo do your homework?

 

 

But military history happens to be a passion of mine.

 

Bassicly, a ballista is like a giant crossbow. It was used in the ancient world and, I believe, Roman armies used to contain hundreds of them for each legion or something.

 

It's interesting that they were used as early as Alexander the Great. But essentially, it's like Dennis the Menaces schoolboy catapult, except: instead of a small stone you could have a great big rock or a huge arrow long enough to hit about 4 people at once; instead of a rubber band, you had a flexible, but extremely strong wood allowing enough energy to be stored to thow the arrow a large distance; and instead of using your fingers, you required a number of men to turn a winch type device.

 

It was a beast, and a dangerous beast and unless you are armed with tanks and machine guns, you should be scared. The only hope against them is to charge in before they are able to kill to many of you. They wern't exactly precision guided missiles though. The best you could do was aim them into clusters of troops and hope for the best.

[Turtle]

But military history happens to be a passion of mine.

 

Bassicly, a ballista is like a giant crossbow.

 

Agreed.

 

It's interesting that they were used as early as Alexander the Great. But essentially, it's like Dennis the Menaces schoolboy catapult, except: instead of a small stone you could have a great big rock or a huge arrow long enough to hit about 4 people at once; instead of a rubber band, you had a flexible, but extremely strong wood allowing enough energy to be stored to thow the arrow a large distance; and instead of using your fingers, you required a number of men to turn a winch type device.

 

It was a beast, and a dangerous beast and unless you are armed with tanks and machine guns, you should be scared. The only hope against them is to charge in before they are able to kill to many of you. They wern't exactly precision guided missiles though. The best you could do was aim them into clusters of troops and hope for the best.

Dis-agree: Alexander's ballistas employed a torsion spring in the siege of Tyre; this was a new technology as opposed to using flexible wooden bows. At Tyre, ballistas were used to repulse naval assaults, as well as to blast an opening in the island fortresse's walls. Beasts that they were, Alexander's ballistas were exactly precision guided missle launchers. :doh:

[asimon2006]

Actually I did but my leader of the debate didn't like the information from wikipedia. I needed the basic info of the ballista in complete detail. Note: World History Pre-AP, Sophomore in High School

[sebbysteiny]

I'd listen to Turtle.

 

But I would like to discuss this 'precision guided' thing. I think what you are talking about is that, once put in position and adjusted for hours, one can send the missiles roughly in the same spot to within a few meters. And even then, you can't pick out soldiers to kill. One must still shoot at clusters and hope for the best. However, if facing armies, one does not even have the time to make the adjustments. But luckily, large clusters of men are easier to find so the 'shoot and hope' tactics are still effective.

 

Having said that, an individual soldier should still be scared of ballisters because even if you survive the charge, you might find the guy who was supposed to guard your *** does not.