The bows of these machines already featured a winched pull back system and could apparently throw two missiles at once. He probably designed his bow-machines on the occasion of the sieges of Cumae and Milet between 421 BC and 401 BC. Zopyrus has been plausibly equated with a Pythagorean of that name who seems to have flourished in the late 5th century BC. 2nd century BC), whose reliability has been positively reevaluated by recent scholarship, described two advanced forms of the gastraphetes, which he credits to Zopyros, an engineer from southern Italy. A detailed description of the gastraphetes, or the “belly-bow”, along with a watercolor drawing, is found in Heron’s technical treatise Belopoeica. 1st century AD), who referred to the now lost works of the 3rd-century BC engineer Ctesibius, this weapon was inspired by an earlier foot-held crossbow, called the gastraphetes, which could store more energy than the Greek bows. The introduction of crossbows however, can be dated further back: according to the inventor Hero of Alexandria (fl. Diodorus is assumed to have drawn his description from the highly rated history of Philistus, a contemporary of the events then. The weapon was soon after employed against Motya (397 BC), a key Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily. 1st century BC), described the invention of a mechanical arrow-firing catapult ( katapeltikon) by a Greek task force in 399 BC. Primitive catapults were essentially “the product of relatively straightforward attempts to increase the range and penetrating power of missiles by strengthening the bow which propelled them”. ![]() The catapult and crossbow in Greece are closely intertwined. Ancient mechanical artillery: Catapults (standing), the chain drive of Polybolos (bottom center), Gastraphetes (on wall).
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