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Catapults are siege engines that
use an arm to hurl a projectile a great distance. Technically
any machine that hurls an object can be considered a
catapult, but the term is generally understood to mean
a specific type of medieval siege weapon. Originally,
"catapult" referred to a dart-thrower, while
"ballista" referred to a stone-thrower, but
ironically over the years, the two terms eventually
switched meanings.
Catapults were usually assembled
at the site of a siege, and an army carried few or no
pieces of it with them because the needed wood was usually
easily available on site. The Greeks came up with the
earliest form of a catapult, which was similar to a
very large crossbow, but adapted to have a sling that
would allow all sorts of objects to be hurled, including
pots of the infamous Greek fire.
The mangonel followed. On a mangonel,
the bottom end of the throwing arm and the inner ends
of both ballista arms are inserted into rope or fibers
that are twisted, providing a stronger store of energy
because of the torque. Torsional ballistas had greater
power. Most mangonels have an arm with a bucket, cup,
or most often a sling to hold the projectile at one
end.
 Finally, the last type of catapult,
which was also the king of all Medieval siege weapons,
is a trebuchet, which used gravity or traction, rather
than tension or torsion, to propel the throwing arm.
A falling counterweight, would pull down the bottom
end of the arm and the projectile is thrown from a sling
attached to a rope hanging from the top end of the arm.
In layman’s terms, the weapon is similar to a giant
sling attached to a giant see-saw. The counterweight
was usually much heavier than the projectile, to assure
maximum distance and force.
Through out Medieval times, catapults
and related siege machines were the first weapons used
for biological warfare. The carcasses of diseased animals
and those who had perished from the Black Death or other
diseases were loaded onto the catapult and then thrown
over the castle's walls to infect those barricaded inside.
There are other recorded instances of large numbers
of beehives being catapulted over castle walls.
The catapult was a necessary
weapon since a normal military confrontation in Medieval
times was for one force to hole up in a castle, and
another to lay siege to it. Without siege weapons, the
attacking army would have to starve the people out by
blocking supplies, which could take months to years.
Siege weapons allowed a more proactive approach to the
matter, and the basic catapult was much easier to assemble
than a trebuchet, though even the mighty trebuchet,
when all is said and done, is a catapult. These are
the weapons of seige that Medieval armies relied on,
and deserve their recognized place in history.
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