Ballista generally means ‘projectile shooter’ and it was invented in ancient Greece c.800BC. In ancient Greek texts, the ballista is usually referred to as a palintone, which threw stones; although it was a complicated, expensive design it was very efficient. The engineers at Rhodes were known to modify their palintones to throw arrows as well as stones.
The Greek ballistae are thought to have been primarily a siege weapon. All components that were not made of wood were transported and assembled with local wood, if necessary.
Usksider has asked me whether the ancient Greeks used a shipboard ballista. However, although they used the ballista in siege warfare it wasn’t until the late 4th century BC that ballistae were introduced onto ships. The first people to do this were the Macedonians and Alexander the Great would eventually transform the ballista into a compelling war machine!
In naval warfare ballistae would be used to catapult an incendiary substance (although we are not sure what it was made up of!) A fire on board a ship would create chaos allowing the enemy to use grappling hooks to board the ship and take control of it.
Caesar’s Gallic War tells us that in the conquest of Britain 55BC, the Romans used archers and ballistae on board their boats to fire at the British.
