Onager - range/size/load

[metalbasher]

Speaking of Josephus, I recall that he complained about the sound of the stones from the siege weapons whizzing by

Yes - he also says that sentries on the wall used to shout a warning when they saw the (light-coloured) stones being launched - so the Romans took to painting the stones black. This might imply that the Romans were shooting at relatively long range (Josephus says two furlongs, which is a quarter of a mile, or 440 yards).

Most recent translations give the sentries' shout as 'Baby on the way!' - which sounds like 'military humour' - although apparently Josephus wrote the phrase as 'the son comes',
which is more mysterious. This article (albeit with a very religious focus) ponders what the expression might have meant - was 'son' a mistake for 'stone'?

Josephus' account suggests to me that the stones were being launched from something other than an onager (i.e., a ballista or scorpion)

The single-armed onager was probably introduced in the 3rd century - I think the earliest oblique reference is in Tertullian, who calls it a 'scorpio'. Clearly artillery terminology had changed over the years!

By the way, why was it called an onager?

According to Ammianus (23.4.7):

"And the machine is called tormentum as all the released tension is caused by twisting (torquetur); and scorpion, because it has an upraised sting; modern times have given it the new name onager, because when wild asses are pursued by hunters, by kicking they hurl back stones to a distance, either crushing the breasts of their pursuers, or breaking the bones of their skulls and shattering them."

But he also says that "a heavy machine of this kind, if placed upon a stone wall, shatters everything beneath it by its violent concussion" - so the word was perhaps more a reference to the 'kick' of the weapon's release than to the effects of its missiles!

  

The first time I visited Massada (about 35 years ago) the area beyond the siege ramp was littered with large round stones. 

Initially I thought them to be some sort of geological formation but it soon dawned upon me that they were worked into fairly accurate spheres and had perhaps been flung there by the Roman siege engine(s). I am pretty sure they were lying just where they had come to rest because they were so scattered (and quite a distance within the walls).

Somewhere I have Sony Video 8 footage of these stones and me attempting to pick one up. However, I couldn't get even my arms around it and it was far too heavy for me to lift.

The last time I visited Massada these stones had been collected into neat heaps.

Is there any evidence of similar stones at other sites?