Why Did The Ballista Fall

The ballista was a Greek siege weapon adopted and improved by the Roman army after their conquest of Greece in approximately 146 BCE. In the centuries to come the ballista would become a standard part of each Roman legion- despite being a prohibitively expensive and labor intensive machine to build and operate. All the while the machine grew larger and larger, one reportedly being used to fire bolts 1.1 kilometers across the Danube River. The ballista, at least in the form seen during the late republic and early to mid-empire, all but disappears after the fall of The Western Empire and into the middle ages. The reason why these weapons disappear is that the resource network, wealth, and professionally trained soldiers needed to maintain the Roman ballista was lost when the Western Empire fell. The Ballista was in essence a gigantic crossbow, using two torsion springs wound by hand to store an impressive amount of energy. Early versions were primarily wood, but as the ballista got larger metal was needed in the parts of the machine that experienced the

Bolts and stones for these early ballistae were assembled on the battlefield. These smaller ballistae required little specialized knowledge to build, and consequences for mistakes wouldn’t be as severe as most parts were wooden and able to be easily remade. The later, and much larger, ballista were made of large amounts of metal and delicately cut wood. Mathematicians and professional artisans were needed to design and build these weapons. Their massive projectiles (some exceeding 150lbs) were pre-rounded by craftsmen and thus had to be transported. The metal parts, of increasing size and density within the machines, had to be transported with the legion as well. All requiring a massive logistical chain and the resources to maintain