Roman Ballistae in Modern Popular Culture

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Roman bolt-throwers could be used with devastating accuracy (their operators could aim for and hit individuals), so their use should be compared more to sniper fire than to high explosive artillery of gunpowder-era heavy weapons. That's a significant advantage considering the relative inaccuracy of other ranged weapons used at the time. That said, they would only really be useful in set-piece battles or seige situations, given the long preparation time they would need to use and their very static nature.

Robert, I would agree with you about the relatively static nature of the earlier (prior to late 1st Century AD) bolt shooters. Those were the wooden-framed euthytone engines commonly called scorpions or catapulta. They appear to have been superceeded by an "up-gunned" version of Heron's Cheiroballistra (hand ballista). By switching to a palintone or ballista layout, which many of us believe had arms that swung inwards, they were able to greatly reduce the overall length of the weapon making it short enough to fit in the bed of a military mule cart on a specially modified base. The ability to shoot while mounted made the new weapon, the carroballista, much more useful in mobile and offensive operations.