Can you name four different types of medieval siege engines and describe their use?
The Ballistae, Mangonel, Catapult and Seige Tower. (sorry about my flippancy previously – I was in a ‘humour; when I came across your question and had a flashback to an embarrassing conversation with a pedantic History Professor during my Undergrad years – I do apologise) Anyway – to complicate things, there was little ot no ‘standardisation’ among the medieval Ordinance movers and shakers so the following is my ‘Best Educated Guess’ kind of opinion as to the overall scheme of things involved, OK : ) The Ballista was the big bloody vertically swinging arm that hurled enourmous payloads a long distance. It worked by transferring th energy conatained in a huge weight attatched to the end opposite the net, basket or platform which contained the ‘warhead’ as it were. It is this kind of seige weapon that has enamoured Hollywood in ever ‘Storm the Castle’ movie ever made. The Mangonel was similar to the Ballista in that it projected its load along by via a swinging arm. However, it was much
