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The Giant Roman Catapult - March 2007

The largest weapon the Romans ever built was described by the Greek Philon. It was 23 tonne torsion spring catapult 8m tall, used as a siege engine. It was said to be able to throw rocks 1ft in diameter at least 100 yards. Energy for each throw was stored in special ropes made from the very springy Achilles tendons of cattle.

For our big Cat, all constructed and erected in green oak by Carpenter Oak and Woodland, we did all projectile and trajectory studies, parametric studies of geometry and stresses, 3D visualisations and assembly mockups, materials selection, all working drawings, mechanical drawings and erection/safety dossiers.In this, we were greatly helped by Alan Wilkins, classical archaeologist, who provided definitive interpretations of the texts of the ancient engineers Vitruvius and Philon and provided us with literal interpretations of them in sketch form as the basis of our own work.