Ballista

The ballista was a highly accurate weapon (there are many accounts of single soldiers being picked off by ballista operators), but some design aspects meant it could compromise its accuracy for range.

A medium ballista was capable of penetrating the sides of most warships at close range and had an effective range of around 200 yards.

Being lighter, they could outmaneuver Antony's ships, get in close, attack the above-deck crew with a shower of arrows and ballista-launched stones, and then retreat.

Most ballista firing was aimed at the marines on the fighting decks of the ships.

Polybolos main It has been speculated that the Roman military may have also fielded a 'repeating' ballista, also known as a polybolos.

Probably there were different models of this cart-mounted ballista of the cheiroballistra class, at least two different two-wheeled models and one model with four wheels.

Some were not much larger than arrows, and were typically feather- fletched like an arrow and unlike the vast majority of spears and javelins (one exception would be several instances of the many types of ballista bolt, a mechanically-thrown spear).

The artillery used arradah (ballista), manjaniq (the mangonel) and dabbabah or kabsh (the battering ram).

The ballista has torsion springs replacing the elastic prod of the oxybeles, but later also developed into smaller versions.

The torsion ballista, developed by Alexander, was a far more complicated weapon than its predecessor and the Romans developed it even further, especially into much smaller versions, that could be easily carried.

The two Macriani left Quietus, Ballista, and, presumably, Odenathus to deal with the Persians while they invaded Europe with an army of 30,000 men, according to the Historia Augusta.