Polybolos

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Exhibition pieces on the Saalburg , left: Reconstruction of a polybolus

The Polybolus was an ancient Greek catapult originally designed by Dionysius of Alexandria, a 3rd century BC Greek engineer. BC, was constructed. It was further developed by Philon of Byzantium . The specialty of this ballista was that it was able to shoot bolts one after the other without having to take long breaks.

Surname

The word Polybolos (πολυβόλος) is Greek and literally means “shoots many projectiles”: Poly (πολυ) means “a lot”; and Bolos (βόλος) means "thrower".

Mechanism and Use

Outwardly, the Polybolos differed from a ballista already used back then in only one thing : It had a wooden magazine above the launching rail, in which several dozen bolts could be stored. If a bolt was fired, the next one automatically slid down.

Otherwise it was a normal two-armed torsion gun , which was wound with a winch and a chain mechanism. Racks and pawls prevented the tendon from snapping back. If a bolt was fired, another immediately fell into the firing rail and made the time-consuming winding back and arrow reloading unnecessary.

This weapon was especially important for defending walls, and because of its weight it was not often used in field battles.

history

Polybolus was created by Dionysius of Alexandria around 400 BC. Invented. It only became of military importance when Philo of Byzantium around 250 BC. Chr. The Polybolos further developed and perfected. That after the 2nd century BC they Was still in use, is not archaeologically proven, but very likely. Unlike the Gastraphetes , the Polybolos had short, thick bolts in Philon's development stage.

Adaptations

The Museum of Ancient Shipping in Mainz built a reconstruction of an ancient polybol in 2006.

literature

  • Peter Connolly : The Greek Armies. Tessloff Verlag, Hamburg 1977, ISBN 3-7886-0181-7 , chap. Siege devices.
  • W. Gohlke: The guns of antiquity and the Middle Ages , in Volume 6 (1912-1914) of the magazine for historical weapons, publisher: Association for historical weapons, Dresden, 1915, pages 12 to 22. (online digitized)

Web links

Commons : Polybolos  - collection of images, videos and audio files