Background Information: (from Alex) The Battle of Motya - 394 BC
In the 4th C. BC, the great powers in the Mediterreanean - the Greeks and the Carthaginians - had been struggling for control of Sicily, which was on the intersection of various trade routes and therefore strategically important.
By 394 BC, the Carthegineans - from Carthage on the North African Coast - had gained the upper hand. Motya was their main naval base in Sicily. It was a town built on a island just off the coast, connected to the mainland by a causeway.
In those days, the state of Italy did not exist. Individual cities and city-states controlled their local area. The most powerful, best armed and best defended city on Sicily was the Greek city of Syracuse.
The tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I was Determined to win Sicily back from the Carthaginians. He had seen how effective their siege equipment had been in their campaign to dominate his island. The Carthaginians had inherited knowledge of these weapons - such as assult towers and battering rams - from their ancestors in the near and middle East.
Up until then, these city-taking weapons had not been used by the Greeks. They had tended to settle their conflicts on the battle field
In the build up to his offensive to take back Sicily, Dionysius gathered craftsmen and weapons experts from around the Mediterrenean to develop new ideas that would give him an edge. By the time he attacked Motya, he had the world's first hight-powered crossbows and tripod-mounted catapults. Armed with these, his siege tower was a force to be reckoned with - effectively the first tank.
When the people of Motya saw that Dionysius was threatening them, they destroyed the causeway linking their city to the coast. Dionysius had to re-build this under enemy fire, in order to roll his siege tower up to the city walls.
The tower was higher than the city walls. Defenders on the battlements below were driven off or killed by the withering firepower of bowmen and catapults above them - whilst the Greeks were safe inside their armoured tower.
The city wall was breached and the tower was pushed through into the town. But the houses just inside the wall were just as high - and a bloody battle broke out on the roof tops. Again the tower protected the Greeks, and they won the day. It was the beginning of any era in which Dionysius was to become the most powerful Greek ruler of the age.
Goal: To re-create, design, and build a Siege Tower that will allow an army to traverse a 28' tall wall. Also, to encorporate ancient weaponry. |
