Technology and Engineering Atlas

How Things Are Built
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Inventions

Onager (Weapon)

Mechanical Engineering

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

The onager was a Roman torsion-powered siege engine, a type of catapult commonly built with a bowl, bucket, or sling at the end of its throwing arm. It was first mentioned in 353 AD by the historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who described onagers as the same weapon as a scorpion. The onager is often confused with the later mangonel, a traction trebuchet that replaced torsion-powered siege engines by the sixth century AD.

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.