Catapults

Catapult is a siege engine that uses stored mechanical energy to hurl projectiles at targets such as fortifications or troops. The term covers several devices, most notably torsion-powered machines such as ballistae and onagers, as well as the counterweight trebuchet. Mangonels are often grouped with catapults as a class of siege engines, though they differ in throwing mechanism.

In torsion engines, energy is stored by twisting bundles of cords or sinew. A throwing arm is released to convert the stored energy into kinetic energy, launching a stone, bolt, or other projectile from a cup or sling. Counterweight trebuchets use a large weight that drops on a follower arm, transferring gravity-driven energy to the throwing arm. This design generally offered longer range and greater stability than early torsion machines.

Historically, catapult-like devices appear in ancient Greece and Rome, with ballistae used to fire bolts and stones and onagers used for heavy projectile delivery. The development and deployment of such engines continued through late antiquity and the medieval period. Counterweight trebuchets are believed to have originated in China by the early medieval era and later spread to the Islamic world and Europe, where they became dominant for siege warfare in many regions due to their power and accuracy.

Function and limitations: catapults were used to breach walls, harass garrisons, and deliver incendiaries or other payloads over obstacles. They required substantial labor, skilled crews, and time to set up. The advent of gunpowder artillery in Europe and Asia gradually reduced their battlefield role, though replicas and demonstrations persist in museums and reenactments.