Hat 8184 Greek Catapults

During the Dark Ages and for a large part of the Archaic Age (altogether from around 1200 BC to around 800-700 BC), the Greek fortification art made almost no progress compared to the Mycenaean era, which also resulted in a stagnation in the development of siege equipment . Probably only in the 6th century BC. Greek cities began to be surrounded with defensive walls, and later also these fortifications were modernized by adding towers. One of the most spectacular fortification works of the classical era (5th-4th century BC) were the so-called The Long Walls that connected Athens with their harbors at Phaleron and Piraeus. They proved to be very effective and in fact constituted an impassable obstacle for the Spartan army during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). And it was from this war, very bloody for the Greek world, that the renaissance of siege art in the Greek world can be dated, and Sicily was the main source of novelties in this matter. It was then at the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 4th century BC. powerful "crossbows" called gastrophetes appeared, as well as ballistae and catapults that launched stones or arrows. During the Macedonian rule, the art of besieging cities in the Greek world made considerable progress - one can mention here, for example, the siege of Tire by Alexander the Great or the achievements of Demetrios called the Conqueror of Cities (Greek: Poliorketes).