Artillery range, 1st Century AD

[P. Clodius Secundus]

I don't believe most machines were used in the 45 degrees distance shooting like many re-enactment displays shows. I think they are really build for straight and accurate shooting. A ballista stone will only damage a wall when shoot straight agains it, not under an angle. Then I think about 150 to 200 meters are the max.

Jurgen, after spending a bit of time looking through the texts it appears to me that the authors were far more concerned with range than with straight line accuracy. Evidence the following.....
Philon, "The object of artillery-construction is to dispatch the missile at long range, to strike with powerful impact."
Vegetius "If it is tuned in accordance with mechanical principles and if it is aimed by experts, who have previously collected data about its range, it pierces whatever it hits."
Perhaps the most informative is Philon's criticism of the repeating catapult. "The missiles will not have a spread, since the aperture has been laid on a single target and produces a trajectory more or less along one segment of a circle; nor will they have a very elongated dropping zone"
Repeated references to such things as range, data, trajectory, and dropping zone seem to favor more indirect fire. I'll try to compile a more comprehensive list to add to this discussion.
Regards,
Randi/Clodius