How big were catapults?

Answer 1

They ranged in size. A small one, such as a small ballista, could probably be lifted by two men; it was basically a crossbow on a stand. A large one, like a trebuchet, was the size of a large truck, perhaps 20 meters long, and big enough to toss a dead horse over a tall wall.

Answer 2

The Roman had several catapults which came in different sizes. The had several versions of the ballista and they had the onager.

The Romans adopted the Greek ballista in the 2nd century BC. . The Greek ballista was a siege weapon. The metal components were transported, but the wooden frame and other wooden components were built on the spot using local wood. It was deployed on siege towers or at the edge of the battlefield. Later they developed it into more of a field weapon by making smaller versions. The ballista could fire both bolts and spherical projectiles. The Romans adopted a more advanced and much more complicated version of this weapon, the torsion ballista.

Initially the bow of the Roman ballista was mounted on square or rectangular wooden frame held together by iron plates. They had a long stand which had a slider attached to a pair of winches and a claw at the back. The bolt or stones were loaded on the slider and the winch stretched the bowstring backwards to prepare it for firing. Torsion springs made of ropes of animal sinew were twisted around the arms of the bow and the bow was attached to the bow string. When the bowstring was drawn back, this twisted the springs which were already very taut, thus creating larger torsion energy for firing. The torsion springs were attached to by frame iron or bronzed clasps which could be moved to different holes and secured with pins. This allowed make adjustments the symmetrical balance of the arms of the bows or adaptations for the weather conditions.

The Romans also developed different versions of the ballista. The Manuballista was a smaller, handheld version made entirely of iron. The Carroballista was a cart-mounted version. This version made the ballista much more flexible and mobile, allowing it to follow the troops as the battle developed and making it a much better battlefield weapon. The ancient sources said that the Romans developed the polybolos, a repeating' ballista' which shot 11 shots a minute. This was at least four times the rate of an ordinary ballista. However, none has been found by archaeologists. The bolts were kept in a magazine and after a shot a rotating cam placed the next bolt on the shaft were the bolts were fired.

The ballista was a very effective weapon. It was very accurate and its operators could hit a man Projectiles could be fired over walls. It could reach over 500 yards (460 m), but it could be sued effectively in battle at a much shorter range. The making of the bowstring and torsion springs was very complicated. The Ropes were made of highly intertwined strands and they had to be assembled at a very high level of tension, making this a specialised job.

The onager was a large rectangular frame which had an inverted V shaped frame with a beam at the front and two parallel beams at the back fixed onto it. It used the torsional force from a twisted rope. In the middle of the two parallel beams there was a spoke which passed through a rope attached to a windlass at the lack of the rectangular frame. A sling which contained the projectile was attached to it. The spoke was forced down against the tension of the twisted ropes and then released. As the sling was trusted forward, it released the projectile. The spoke was then pulled back again with a padded beam. The onager was a siege weapon and in the Late Empire it was used to defend besieged forts or towns. It was more powerful than a similar version used later, from around 1200. It was named after an Asian wild ass because its kicking resembled the shooting with this catapult.

Answer 3

I would say a catapult (or trebuchet) in the middle ages would've been around 15-20 feet tall, and that's just the frame. The arm was almost twice the length.

Answer 4

Proper war trebuchets were as big as a modern house and needed many soldiers to crew them.

Answer 5

They ranged in size from "man-sized" (2 yards) to over 4 stories tall (40-50 ft).

Answer 6

about 20ft