makkyo
05-26-2004, 20:01
Since the Old Testament in the Bible as well as ancient Egypt, the city has
been a site for influential and well-recorded battles. Siege warfare, the
act of fighting in a fortified position, and fortifications are inextricably
linked, and therefore when advances are made in one are of siege warfare
there must be advances made in the other in order to conduct a successful
siege. Many of these early and important advancements were made during the
Classical Age in Greece and Rome. Architects of ancient fortifications met
the challenges of new siege techniques and technology by adding towers,
digging defensive trenches, and changing the construction of citadel walls.
Ancient fortifications made little progress in development from the
Bronze Age to the Peloponnesian Wars. The Mycenaen civilization is well know
for its impressive fortifications, which all followed certain conventions.
Mycenaen citadels, a walled city, are commonly characterized by their
massive, cyclopean walls. These walls were made of blocks so massive that it
was believed to be made by the mythical Cyclopes, a race of giant men. From
these walls usually produced a bastion, which was in of itself a wall that
produced from the citadel at a ninety degree angle. Bastions were mainly
placed by the main gate to a city and allowed the defenders to easily defend
this weak point in their citadels by attacking the besiegers on three
fronts. The gates themselves were made of large, heavy timber and stayed
that way for ages.
When the Mycenaen civilization fell, little to no development was made in
the construction of the citadels. Only one exception was that walls were no
longer made of such massive stones, as people today do not even know how
they were made. Ancient fortifications did not change until the
Peloponnesian War due to the lack of stimulus from advance siege techniques
and technology.
New and important changes were made in siege technology between the
Peloponnesian War and the time of Alexander the Great. The techniques
brought up during the Peloponnesian War were the use of battering rams,
ladders, and earthen ramps. Though advanced siege techniques were recorded
CE 1200 BCE in an Assyrian relief, this knowledge seems to have been lost
during the Greek Dark Ages and re-introduced by the Persians when they
unsuccessfully tried to invade Greece.
By the outbreak of the Peloponnesian Wars, some of these ancient and simple
technologies were first recorded. Battering rams, though commonplace anytime
afterwards, were first recorded to be in used in Greece. The battering ram
had the purpose of shaking down the battlements of the defenders to render
the walls of the besieged useless. Earthen ramps also came into play by the
Spartans when they besieged the city of Plataea, an ally to Athens. These
massive ramps were to surpass the height of the city walls and allow the
Spartan army to storm the city without having to scale the walls with
ladders, even if this ploy failed in this particular case. Ladders are the
most simple siege technique in the known world. Using trigonometry, one
would be able to find the appropriate height of their ladder and would lean
it against the wall of a city to climb over the walls. These techniques and
technology remained to be in use even after the shadow of more advanced
siege engines were constructed.
A new dimension to siege tactics was added around the time of Alexander the
Great and the Persian Wars- artillery. These ranged siege weapons were
invented and brought into popular employment because it allowed the
attackers to bring damage upon the enemy from a great distance. The
gastraphet, a variation of the compound bow, was the first of its kind and
fired bolts as projectiles at a longer range and higher velocity. Oxybeles
became even more popular than the gastraphet because as the demand for
artillery to increase its range surpassed the design of the compound bow, a
new way to energize artillery had to be made. The oxybele used amore
efficient design of twisted hair and sinew to add tension to the devise. The
last to be made, the lithobols, meaning stone-thrower, is in essence a
larger version of the gastraphet that is so massive and strong that it can
throw massive stones at even a greater distance than any arrow or bolt can
go. Places to house artillery were also made by the besiegers. These
wheeled, massive, moving towers were nicknamed the Helepolis (city-
destroyer) and it most famous use was during the Siege of Rhodes by
Demetrius “the besieger.” Sometime reaching the height of 40 meters, these
towers would be pushed and pulled by a large crew up to the walls of the
defenders and would strip the battlements of personnel.
Improvements were also made in non-ranged siege craft. The sambuca, designed
by Damis of Colophon, improved the conventional ladder. The besiegers did
not have to worry about the length of their ladders because by wheeling up
the devise and using a counterweight the attackers can move to the walls
swiftly and from a safe distance, able to have the base of the ladder
several meters away from the enemy walls themselves. The fire-raiser was
recorded in use during the siege of Delum in 424 BCE. A type of battering
ram, the fire-raise was more or less a battering ram that had a cauldron
full of fire in its and would be wheeled up to the city walls in an attempt
to burn down the enemy battlements.
In the Siege of Rhodes, Vitruvius describes a few interesting engines used
by Demetrius, including the Helepolis. The tortoise ram was built in a
housing 8 meters high and 32 meters long. The engine was so massive in fact
that it had a small, 2 meter high tower placed on top of the structure. This
tower had a small catapult and several jars of water to prevent fires. The
outside of the housing consisted of low-combustion wood, seaweed, and ox
hides. The drill described by Vitruvius required a massive amount of men to
move and operate, as had all of Demetrius’ weapons. The drill was set on
rollers and was in a housing 22 meters long with similar coverings on its
exterior.
In response to these many inventions made to take a city, advancements were
made by the besieged to counteract these measures. When the Ionian Greeks
were pressured by the Persians, the first attempts were made to fortify and
entire city. Though an entire city is covered by walls, this obviously
stretched the length of the battlements needed to be defended. This both
weakened and strengthened the fortitude of the walls of a city. At first,
only the weak points in a city’s defenses had towers erected near by, such
as the main gate. These allowed the defenders to attack the enemy from
several sides as the city gate is approached by the besiegers. Though
serving the same purpose as the bastions used by the Mycenaen citadels,
towers were more efficient in design by allowing several floors of defenders
to be housed and attack the enemy. Not slow to realize these advantages,
towers were erected at regular intervals along fortified walls.
Trenches were dug inside and outside of battlements to keep siege engines
and personnel at bay. Usually reaching depths of thirteen feet and the width
of thirty feet, trenches did vary depending on the conditions of the ground
and other circumstances. When available, trenches would have been filled
with water to further deter the enemy and cause swampy areas that siege
engines can get stuck in. There has been evidence of trenches sine the
Trojan war when the Greeks besieged Troy. A trench was dug to keep the Greek
encampment and ships safe from the enemy. Another example, the Spartans
during the Siege of Plataea during the Peloponnesian war dug a trench all
the way around the city to keep the 800 defenders in and an other trench
spaced out not too far away to keep a relief force out. Julius Caesar did
just the same with the perfected Roman technique of bicircumvallation during
the epic siege of Alesia. With a vast network of trenches and booby traps
placed both inside and outside his encampment which is located all the way
around the citadel of Alesia, the besieger became the besieged and the
winner usually had the most food. An attack against such a system was
suicidal and Caesar was able to soundly defect a massive Celtic force of
almost three hundred thousand soldiers as opposed to his fifty thousand.
With the invention of siege engines such as artillery and battering rams,
the construction of fortified walls was changed. Some walls were built in
response to conventional enemy attacks, using ladders and battering rams.
Some ramparts were recorded to have been built in a saw-tooth pattern. With
a emphasis on counter attack and vantage points and the ability for the
besiegers to be flanked by missiles, this interesting design allowed
defenders in one saw-tooth projection give cover to the next saw-tooth
projection and so on. An other interesting design was the Gallic wall known
as “murus Gallicus” in Latin. These walls were built with a stone facing on
the inside and outside and with a timber lacing built into the stone work.
The wall will then be filled with rubble and soil for a soft filling. This
construction make the walls virtually impervious to battering rams and
artillery fire and forced the Romans into using the tactic of
bicircumallation. On occasion wooden place cards were placed on top of any
type of wall and can be shifted to dislodge enemy ladders from their resting
place.
The construction of walls also changed to incorporate the use of artillery
not as an offensive weapon, but a defensive weapon as well. Walls and towers
were pierced but portholes in order for artillery to fire onto the besiegers
and still enjoy the housing of a fortified position. Platforms were made
along these portholes to let artillery be housed inside a fortress’ walls.
Defenders may do something as simple as putting cushions on the walls to
soften the blows from artillery and battering rams or do something as
complex as making a system of wheels ad cranks to deflect and dislodge enemy
missiles from the battlements.
Ancient fortifications, that used to follow certain conventions, were forced
to change in response to advancements in siege technology and techniques by
erecting towers along the battlements, digging trenches, and changing the
structure of fortified walls themselves. This allowed siege warfare to
mature dramatically by adding brand new dimensions to warfare that have
never before been observed. The siege truly became a complex, puzzling, and
extremely important aspect to war.
been a site for influential and well-recorded battles. Siege warfare, the
act of fighting in a fortified position, and fortifications are inextricably
linked, and therefore when advances are made in one are of siege warfare
there must be advances made in the other in order to conduct a successful
siege. Many of these early and important advancements were made during the
Classical Age in Greece and Rome. Architects of ancient fortifications met
the challenges of new siege techniques and technology by adding towers,
digging defensive trenches, and changing the construction of citadel walls.
Ancient fortifications made little progress in development from the
Bronze Age to the Peloponnesian Wars. The Mycenaen civilization is well know
for its impressive fortifications, which all followed certain conventions.
Mycenaen citadels, a walled city, are commonly characterized by their
massive, cyclopean walls. These walls were made of blocks so massive that it
was believed to be made by the mythical Cyclopes, a race of giant men. From
these walls usually produced a bastion, which was in of itself a wall that
produced from the citadel at a ninety degree angle. Bastions were mainly
placed by the main gate to a city and allowed the defenders to easily defend
this weak point in their citadels by attacking the besiegers on three
fronts. The gates themselves were made of large, heavy timber and stayed
that way for ages.
When the Mycenaen civilization fell, little to no development was made in
the construction of the citadels. Only one exception was that walls were no
longer made of such massive stones, as people today do not even know how
they were made. Ancient fortifications did not change until the
Peloponnesian War due to the lack of stimulus from advance siege techniques
and technology.
New and important changes were made in siege technology between the
Peloponnesian War and the time of Alexander the Great. The techniques
brought up during the Peloponnesian War were the use of battering rams,
ladders, and earthen ramps. Though advanced siege techniques were recorded
CE 1200 BCE in an Assyrian relief, this knowledge seems to have been lost
during the Greek Dark Ages and re-introduced by the Persians when they
unsuccessfully tried to invade Greece.
By the outbreak of the Peloponnesian Wars, some of these ancient and simple
technologies were first recorded. Battering rams, though commonplace anytime
afterwards, were first recorded to be in used in Greece. The battering ram
had the purpose of shaking down the battlements of the defenders to render
the walls of the besieged useless. Earthen ramps also came into play by the
Spartans when they besieged the city of Plataea, an ally to Athens. These
massive ramps were to surpass the height of the city walls and allow the
Spartan army to storm the city without having to scale the walls with
ladders, even if this ploy failed in this particular case. Ladders are the
most simple siege technique in the known world. Using trigonometry, one
would be able to find the appropriate height of their ladder and would lean
it against the wall of a city to climb over the walls. These techniques and
technology remained to be in use even after the shadow of more advanced
siege engines were constructed.
A new dimension to siege tactics was added around the time of Alexander the
Great and the Persian Wars- artillery. These ranged siege weapons were
invented and brought into popular employment because it allowed the
attackers to bring damage upon the enemy from a great distance. The
gastraphet, a variation of the compound bow, was the first of its kind and
fired bolts as projectiles at a longer range and higher velocity. Oxybeles
became even more popular than the gastraphet because as the demand for
artillery to increase its range surpassed the design of the compound bow, a
new way to energize artillery had to be made. The oxybele used amore
efficient design of twisted hair and sinew to add tension to the devise. The
last to be made, the lithobols, meaning stone-thrower, is in essence a
larger version of the gastraphet that is so massive and strong that it can
throw massive stones at even a greater distance than any arrow or bolt can
go. Places to house artillery were also made by the besiegers. These
wheeled, massive, moving towers were nicknamed the Helepolis (city-
destroyer) and it most famous use was during the Siege of Rhodes by
Demetrius “the besieger.” Sometime reaching the height of 40 meters, these
towers would be pushed and pulled by a large crew up to the walls of the
defenders and would strip the battlements of personnel.
Improvements were also made in non-ranged siege craft. The sambuca, designed
by Damis of Colophon, improved the conventional ladder. The besiegers did
not have to worry about the length of their ladders because by wheeling up
the devise and using a counterweight the attackers can move to the walls
swiftly and from a safe distance, able to have the base of the ladder
several meters away from the enemy walls themselves. The fire-raiser was
recorded in use during the siege of Delum in 424 BCE. A type of battering
ram, the fire-raise was more or less a battering ram that had a cauldron
full of fire in its and would be wheeled up to the city walls in an attempt
to burn down the enemy battlements.
In the Siege of Rhodes, Vitruvius describes a few interesting engines used
by Demetrius, including the Helepolis. The tortoise ram was built in a
housing 8 meters high and 32 meters long. The engine was so massive in fact
that it had a small, 2 meter high tower placed on top of the structure. This
tower had a small catapult and several jars of water to prevent fires. The
outside of the housing consisted of low-combustion wood, seaweed, and ox
hides. The drill described by Vitruvius required a massive amount of men to
move and operate, as had all of Demetrius’ weapons. The drill was set on
rollers and was in a housing 22 meters long with similar coverings on its
exterior.
In response to these many inventions made to take a city, advancements were
made by the besieged to counteract these measures. When the Ionian Greeks
were pressured by the Persians, the first attempts were made to fortify and
entire city. Though an entire city is covered by walls, this obviously
stretched the length of the battlements needed to be defended. This both
weakened and strengthened the fortitude of the walls of a city. At first,
only the weak points in a city’s defenses had towers erected near by, such
as the main gate. These allowed the defenders to attack the enemy from
several sides as the city gate is approached by the besiegers. Though
serving the same purpose as the bastions used by the Mycenaen citadels,
towers were more efficient in design by allowing several floors of defenders
to be housed and attack the enemy. Not slow to realize these advantages,
towers were erected at regular intervals along fortified walls.
Trenches were dug inside and outside of battlements to keep siege engines
and personnel at bay. Usually reaching depths of thirteen feet and the width
of thirty feet, trenches did vary depending on the conditions of the ground
and other circumstances. When available, trenches would have been filled
with water to further deter the enemy and cause swampy areas that siege
engines can get stuck in. There has been evidence of trenches sine the
Trojan war when the Greeks besieged Troy. A trench was dug to keep the Greek
encampment and ships safe from the enemy. Another example, the Spartans
during the Siege of Plataea during the Peloponnesian war dug a trench all
the way around the city to keep the 800 defenders in and an other trench
spaced out not too far away to keep a relief force out. Julius Caesar did
just the same with the perfected Roman technique of bicircumvallation during
the epic siege of Alesia. With a vast network of trenches and booby traps
placed both inside and outside his encampment which is located all the way
around the citadel of Alesia, the besieger became the besieged and the
winner usually had the most food. An attack against such a system was
suicidal and Caesar was able to soundly defect a massive Celtic force of
almost three hundred thousand soldiers as opposed to his fifty thousand.
With the invention of siege engines such as artillery and battering rams,
the construction of fortified walls was changed. Some walls were built in
response to conventional enemy attacks, using ladders and battering rams.
Some ramparts were recorded to have been built in a saw-tooth pattern. With
a emphasis on counter attack and vantage points and the ability for the
besiegers to be flanked by missiles, this interesting design allowed
defenders in one saw-tooth projection give cover to the next saw-tooth
projection and so on. An other interesting design was the Gallic wall known
as “murus Gallicus” in Latin. These walls were built with a stone facing on
the inside and outside and with a timber lacing built into the stone work.
The wall will then be filled with rubble and soil for a soft filling. This
construction make the walls virtually impervious to battering rams and
artillery fire and forced the Romans into using the tactic of
bicircumallation. On occasion wooden place cards were placed on top of any
type of wall and can be shifted to dislodge enemy ladders from their resting
place.
The construction of walls also changed to incorporate the use of artillery
not as an offensive weapon, but a defensive weapon as well. Walls and towers
were pierced but portholes in order for artillery to fire onto the besiegers
and still enjoy the housing of a fortified position. Platforms were made
along these portholes to let artillery be housed inside a fortress’ walls.
Defenders may do something as simple as putting cushions on the walls to
soften the blows from artillery and battering rams or do something as
complex as making a system of wheels ad cranks to deflect and dislodge enemy
missiles from the battlements.
Ancient fortifications, that used to follow certain conventions, were forced
to change in response to advancements in siege technology and techniques by
erecting towers along the battlements, digging trenches, and changing the
structure of fortified walls themselves. This allowed siege warfare to
mature dramatically by adding brand new dimensions to warfare that have
never before been observed. The siege truly became a complex, puzzling, and
extremely important aspect to war.