Tod's new artillery piece - BALLISTA or CATAPULTA?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 вер 2022
- 9 years ago I lead the engineering on a TV show called "Beat the ancestors" and we made a massive Roman arrow thrower called a catapulta. I loved everything about it so much I made my own, but never quite finished it..........and now I have.
There is likely to be strong discussion on what this is called (the comments will be on fire), but my understanding is that ballista shoot stones and catapulta shoot arrows/bolts/darts. The machines look similar, but in fact are different.
This is the first film where I get it out of storage and start to explain it to you. From now on, let increase the power and find out what it can do.
Production replica weapons are available here todcutler.com
And T shirts and Merch todsworkshop.creator-spring.com
Custom pieces are available here todsworkshop.com
The clip shown came from here • Huge Roman Ballista Ca...
and then many years later with Jorg Sprave • Giant Catapulta tour w...
I like that Tod had an unused catapulta sitting in his cupboard for a decade.
Tod, "Sorry, I've rambled for far too long..."
Your initial understanding is correct, if i remember it clearly from an ancient war museum in Rome itself, it all starts from the original greek warmachines. Shooting bolts/javelins were for piercing (kata/cata) shields (peltas) to disrupt hoplite formations, therefore catapulta. Balista, Onagers, Scorpions etc. were later derivations, and the Romans inherited the word 1:1 in the Latin language (as in latin the two words would be foro/terebro and scutum, no resemblance to catapulta).
Tod, your "rambling on" had me is stitches. Loved it. When you spoke about issuing field artillery manuals whilst the English were living in mud huts cracked me up. Reminded me of the fun jousts my parents used to have. Dad was Hungarian and Mum from Lancashire. During one of these spates Dad said "You English, you were painting your bodies with berries when we were riding horses with stirrups" We all know how stirrups are an ultimate weapon. Without missing a beat in perfect English whit, Mum fired back "That's true, but it didn't take us long to surpass you."
Always cool to see the pre-gunpowder solutions to "how can I make a thing go really fast towards the enemy"
This is absolutely beautiful. The fact that it was sitting somewhere in his house for 10 years adds a lot of humor to it. Has the same energy of someone finding a Panther in their barn
Alan Wilkins taught me Latin in the early '60's. He was an excellent and very popular teacher and the youngest teacher of Classics at our school (by several decades). His lessons were always peppered with stories and anecdotes about how the Romans actually lived and we soon cottoned on that, if the mood was right, cunningly devised questions about the Roman army - and particularly the Roman army in Britain - could set him off on a fascinating tangent for ages.
0:35
The King of Ancient Machinery is back! Hurray!
Someone sponsor this man to build a siege onager already!!! We need to complete his collection ASAP!
" i had this thing in my cupboard." favorite quote of Tod.
I built a small one of these along with a different catapult some years back, I made it out of craft sticks and string for one of my kids school projects, I remember it really surprised me just how far such a small 'toy' could throw the arrows I made, apparently it surprised the teacher also but it was a big hit with the kids :)
Fascinating, plus I finally found out what a 'scorpion' actually was.
Tod; I could listen to you ramble on about a catapulta/ballista all day!
Rome is so fascinating. I also love the theory that Rome was founded by the survivors of Troy.
great video!
I never knew that catapult(a)s and ballistas had the reverse meaning in Roman times. "Ballistas shoot pointy sticks" has been ingrained in my brain.
Always had a soft spot for these, seriously cool stuff!
Would they ever have mounted the "supporting arm" prop, at the top instead of the bottom? The bottom could be loosely set in grooves or notches in the main upright that would allow pre-set range angles. Or at the very least, you wouldn't have to bend down to reset the prop.
Tod ... you are amazing... you just rummage in your store and conjure the exact same machine that I am building!