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The Roman legions were aided by effective artillery, a word derived from a word form meaning 'to work with art' and there is little doubt that the legionaires must have felt that their great engines of war were indeed works of art. In fact, the Romans inherited their projectile-throwing artillery from the Greeks and others; throughout the Near East, they seem to have been in general use after 400 B.C. The Romans did very little to develop them further, but the few efforts they did make had vast repercussions to the development of artillery. These involved two weapons, the catapult and the onager.
The onager. Photo curtesy of the Roman Print Collection
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