It is astonishing what a large number of catapults and balistas were sometimes used in a siege. For instance, at the conquest of Carthage, B.C. 146, 120 great catapults and 200 small ones were taken from the defenders, besides 33 great balistas and 52 small ones (Livy).[21]
[21] Just previous to the famous defence of Carthage, the Carthaginians surrendered to the Romans ‘two hundred thousand suits of armour and a countless number of arrows and javelins, besides catapults for shooting swift bolts and for throwing stones to the number of two thousand.’ From Appian of Alexandria, a Greek writer who flourished 98–161.
Abulfaragio (Arab historian, 1226–1286) records that at the siege of Acre in 1191, 300 catapults and balistas were employed by Richard I. and Philip II.
Abbo, a monk of Saint Germain des Prés, in his poetic but very detailed account of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885, 886, writes ‘that the besieged had a hundred catapults on the walls of the town.’[22]
[22] These were probably balistas, as Ammianus Marcellinus writes of the catapult, ‘An engine of this kind placed on a stone wall shatters whatever is beneath it, not by its weight but by the violence of its shock when discharged.’
Among our earlier English kings Edward I. was the best versed in projectile weapons large and small, including crossbows and longbows.
In the Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, an account is given of his ‘War-wolf,’ a siege engine in the construction of which he was much interested and which was no doubt a trebuchet.
This machine was of immense strength and size, and took fifty carpenters and five foremen a long time to complete. Edward designed it for the siege of Stirling, whither its parts were sent by land and by sea.
Sir Walter de Bedewyne, writing to a friend on July 20, 1304 (see Calendar of State Documents relating to Scotland), says: ‘As for news, Stirling Castle was absolutely surrendered to the King without conditions this Monday, St. Margaret’s Day, but the King wills it that none of his people enter the castle till it is struck with his “War-wolf,” and that those within the castle defend themselves from the said “War-wolf” as best they can.’
From this it is evident that Edward, having constructed his ‘War-wolf’ to cast heavy stones into the castle of Stirling to induce its garrison to surrender, was much disappointed by their capitulation before he had an opportunity of testing the power of his new weapon.