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Early Imperial Roman Manuballista: Full breakdown!

The Romans used two types of light bolt shooter, the Scorpio minor which was really quite small and the Manuballista, a slightly larger bolt thrower with ranges twice that of a bow with a lot of hitting power.

The earliest versions were copied from the Greek designs which had a box shaped front which made it very hard to aim as you could not sight down the length of the bolt. The Romans used this type into the middle of the 1st Century AD but a newer version was devised with an arch strut front of cast Iron. This enabled easy sighting as the operator could clearly see through the middle for better aim.

The model we have built is heavily based on the reconstructions from the Vindolanda trust Roman Army Museum and the version on display at the Corinium museum in Cirencester. You can see this version of the bolt shooter in use on Trajans column. It was in use into the 6th Century.

A Roman Cohort was made up of 480 men divided into 6 Centuria of 80 men. Each Centuria was responsible for a Bolt shooter so each Cohort would have 6 bolt shooters. There were 10 Cohorts to a Legion so each Legion would have 60 bolt shooters.

We have designed the crew to be performing various tasks such as winding the wheel mechanisms, loading the bolts, aiming etc… but we have also added lots of optional parts to depict the Legionaries with axes and picks and buckets so they can be used in an engineering role or making camp! We even have an option for standing guard with a grounded shield. There are also defensive stakes and an ammunition barrel you can fill with extra bolts.

These sculpts are all ready to go to tooling and we will keep you informed of their progress.

Quelle: Victrix Miniatures auf Facebook