Tastes Of History
Dispelling Some Myths: 'ancient Roman trebuchets'?
A recent search of the internet for information on Roman artillery machines returned, amongst other results, a website with a page...
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Tastes Of History
Aug 6, 2021
How to: Build a replica Cannon Part Five
The Gunners' Equipment In Part One, where we established the background to building our replica cannon. In describing the firing drills...
Tastes Of History
Apr 7, 2021
Whistling Death
Burnswark Hill Approaching across the gentle surrounding Dumfriesshire countryside it is hard to miss the brooding eminence of Burnswark...
Tastes Of History
Jan 19, 2021
How to: Build a replica Cannon Part Four
Projectiles In Parts One, Two and Three of this 'How to:' series we established the background to and how we went about building our...
Tastes Of History
Nov 25, 2020
How to: Build a replica Cannon Part Three
The Gun Carriage In Part Two we looked at seven steps to building a barrel for a replica naval gun that was both lightweight and...
Tastes Of History
Oct 5, 2020
How to: Build a replica Cannon Part Two
The Gun Barrel The core element, the cannon's barrel, is so named because the earliest guns were constructed with iron staves bound...
Tastes Of History
Sep 27, 2020
How to: Build a replica Cannon Part One
The Background History Part One of this series begins with a very brief look at the history of a typical naval gun in use with the Royal...
Tastes Of History
Jul 30, 2020
The Chinese Xuan Feng or "Whirlwind"
Until the advent of gunpowder, the trebuchet (French: trébuchet) was a common powerful siege engine that used a long arm to throw a...
Tastes Of History
Jun 20, 2020
Travels with my Freed Bear: Kourion
When schools in the UK take their half-term break in February, we have been lucky, for the last few years, to visit Cyprus. Although a...
Tastes Of History
Jun 19, 2020
Dionysios' Polybolos
The design of Dionysios of Alexandria’s 'Polybolos' is somewhat unique in the annals of ancient artillery. The very name 'Polybolos' or...
Tastes Of History
Jun 17, 2020
Arcuballista: A Late Roman Crossbow
The sole mention of the arcuballista occurs in the work of Vegetius (Epitoma rei militaris) [1]. In book II.15, when describing how the...
Tastes Of History
Jun 17, 2020
Ballistas, Catapults and Scorpions
A major source of information for Roman artillery is Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a 1st-century BC Roman author, architect, civil and...
Tastes Of History
Jun 16, 2020
Ready, Aim...Shoot!
Many years ago, long before I joined The Roman Military Research Society (or RMRS), a teacher inspired his pupils to build a catapulta,...
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