Cool model of Roman siege works at Avaricum

[G-Manicus]

While reading about Caesar's campaign in Gaul, I came across this model that somebody had made of the siege apparatus the Romans built at the Gallic stronghold of Avaricum:

 

 

 

A truly amazing feat of engineering. They constructed twin terraces stretching across the open area to the town walls with a connecting structure between them. They then rolled their siege towers forward on the terraces and took the city.

 

It took the Romans 4 weeks to build. I'm guessing it took the guy who made the model a little longer. :-)

Edited February 6, 2008 by G-Manicus

[Lost_Warrior]

Awesome!!!!

 

I love models, but alas I lack the patience...or dexterity.

[Gaius Octavius]

Do you know what the stuff in the middle is?

[caldrail]

A temporary anti-siege wall built by the romans to bring missile fire down on the defenders and allow the siege towers to be brought up with the minimum of resostance. Josephus indicates that sometimes the romans built towers for this purpose, even right up against a wall in some cases. Yes, they did lose casualties in building them - something the roman commanders accepted as a necessary evil in assaulting an objective.

[Northern Neil]

Very impressive indeed! I would like to know what scale this model is - looking at the figures it may be 15mm, but its hard to tell.

[Kosmo]

Very nice!

The roman artillery had no purpose behind the roman wall where it could shoot only at romans. Maybe placing it on the wall would have been more accurate.

[Klingan]

Wow, this is a beautiful model!

 

Out of curiosity do you know on what basis this model is made? Archaeological, logically interpretation literary sources, strict literary sources, paintings?

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

A fantastic piece of work, it's pretty amazing that it probably took the Romans less time to build the real thing than it did the artist to make a scaled down model

 

Can you imagine what the townsfolk of Avaricum must have been thinking as the siege works began to take shape?

 

They must have been s***ing themselves!

[G-Manicus]

Can you imagine what the townsfolk of Avaricum must have been thinking as the siege works began to take shape?

 

They must have been s***ing themselves!

You're not far from the truth. Apparently after making their way over the wall during the middle of the night, the Romans encircled the town from atop the inside of the wall. The townspeople massed together in a defensive square to prepare for a Roman attack, but one never came. The Romans just stood there and did nothing. After awhile the townspeople began to panic and, well, ... it kinda went downhill for them from there.

[M. Demetrius]

Can you imagine what the townsfolk of Avaricum must have been thinking as the siege works began to take shape?

 

They must have been s***ing themselves!

You're not far from the truth. Apparently after making their way over the wall during the middle of the night, the Romans encircled the town from atop the inside of the wall. The townspeople massed together in a defensive square to prepare for a Roman attack, but one never came. The Romans just stood there and did nothing. After awhile the townspeople began to panic and, well, ... it kinda went downhill for them from there.

The people inside were probably thinking, "Now where is that guy that said we don't need to worry about the Romans, that our wall would protect us? Bring him up here to the top of the wall. Let's see if he can fly."

 

The Romans had a tradition that the people in the beseiged town could honorably surrender (not always without harm to themselves, mind you) until the ram touched the wall. Then there was no negotiation until the whole affair was over.

 

As for it taking the modeler more time than the actual, I'm sure that's true, but then, the Romans were used to that kind of work, and had probably 10,000 guys working round the clock. That adds some man hours to the count, you know? All the roofs of the ramps and "tunnels" were covered with leather. Just think of how many cows that represents!! They used leather because it would not burn, and has a little structural strength.

[caldrail]

Very nice!

The roman artillery had no purpose behind the roman wall where it could shoot only at romans. Maybe placing it on the wall would have been more accurate.

 

Lighter ballistae could have been placed on such a wall, for direct fire at the defenders to persuade them to duck at the very least. Whilst ducked they don't shoot back or push objects down on the attackers below. This was done at Masada for instance, where stone piers in the earthen ramp built by slaves supported such weapons.

 

The larger catapultae are too heavy for such placement, besides being a little unwieldy to move around. Instead, bearing in mind the effect of such a roman wall in front of the obejective, these would have been employed to bring down indirect fire on the defenders, firing over the heads of the romans manning the wall. The purpose of this is too make life hell for the defenders since they would be always in fear of being crushed by stones (even by night too, so harder to sleep?) plus the actual damage caused.

[M. Demetrius]

The larger catapultae are too heavy for such placement, besides being a little unwieldy to move around. Instead, bearing in mind the effect of such a roman wall in front of the obejective, these would have been employed to bring down indirect fire on the defenders, firing over the heads of the romans manning the wall. The purpose of this is too make life hell for the defenders since they would be always in fear of being crushed by stones (even by night too, so harder to sleep?) plus the actual damage caused.

 

Some of the balistae could throw a stone weighing a hundred pounds, others shot "arrows" with shafts as large as two or three inches diameter. The former were building breakers, the latter were for concentrations of troops. They found a stack of those hundred pounders outside the walls at Jerusalem. Nicely rounded, nearly spherical. They'd certainly make a leak in your roof!

[caldrail]

Jerusalem was a tough nut to crack. The walls were tall, strong, and well made, resisting efforts to bring them down. The romans tried tunnelling underneath to collapse them and even that didn't work! Therefore it shouldn't come as a suprise that some of the largest siege engines built by roman legions were used there.

 

The missiles were carved from a light coloured stone, easily visible, and when these large rocks were fired the defenders got into the habit of shouting "Here comes another baby!" as a warning to lie flat. Clearly the aiming point of the stones was the top of the wall, which means - as always - the romans weren't so much concerned with breaking the wall down by that method, but rather to break down resistance by either forcing the defenders to either take cover or die horribly. Collateral damage within the city wasn't the main concern but I doubt the romans cared too much.

 

Eventually the romans took to painting the missiles black to make them less visible, or so the story goes, which I find a little odd, since the terrain is mostly lightly coloured (at least today anyway) and surely a black missile was more obvious? Apparently not.

Edited February 10, 2008 by caldrail

[M. Demetrius]

Eventually the romans took to painting the missiles black to make them less visible, or so the story goes, which I find a little odd, since the terrain is mostly lightly coloured (at least today anyway) and surely a black missile was more obvious? Apparently not.

I read that in Josephus, too. And I'm guessing it depended on the angle of the sunlight to the airborn stone. If the Romans were shooting into the sun, the black would be harder to see than light limestone. Must have had some reason, says I, though that's not a real consideration. We're talking about people who put brass hinges on leather belt buckles....

[Maty]

A rare book, but well worth finding, is Furneaux's The Roman Siege of Jerusalem which discusses not only the siege but also much of the campaign leading up to it, including Beth-huron. He uses sources from the Mishnash, but his major source is Josephus, who had the experience of seeing a Roman siege army, both from the pointy end (at Jotapa) and from the Roman side (at Jerusalem). His description of what it was like to be on the walls facing Roman artillery suggests that it was a very unpleasant and scary experience. Does anyone know where this picture comes from? Am currently looking for pics of Late Republican legionaries to reproduce in a book on Mithridates of Pontus