Ballista
Ancient ranged weapon / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the Roman general, see Balista. For the Italian actor, see Gigi Ballista. For the sniper rifle, see FN Ballista.
The ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα ballistra[1] and that from βάλλω ballō, "throw"),[2] plural ballistae, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancient missile weapon that launched either bolts or stones at a distant target.
Developed from earlier Greek weapons, it relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with torsion springs instead of a tension prod (the bow part of a modern crossbow). The springs consisted of several loops of twisted skeins. Early versions projected heavy darts or spherical stone projectiles of various sizes for siege warfare. It developed into a smaller precision weapon, the scorpio,[3] and possibly the polybolos.