Polybolos
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The polybolos was an ancient Greek repeating ballista, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria and used in antiquity. The polybolos was not a crossbow since it used a torsion mechanism, drawing
Arsenal of ancient mechanical artillery in the Saalburg, Germany; left: polybolos reconstruction by the German engineer Erwin Schramm (1856–1935)
A modern reconstruction of the repeating "polybolos" catapult of Dionysius of Alexandria, in Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Athens, Greece.
Oxybeles
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The oxybeles was a weapon used by the Ancient Greeks starting in 375 BC. The word is derived from Ancient Greek: οξύς and βέλος. The weapon was basically an oversized gastraphetes, a composite bow pla
Polybolos
…The polybolos was not a crossbow since it used a torsion mechanism, drawing its power from twisted sinew-bundles. However the earlier and similar oxybeles employed a tension crossbow mechanism, before it was abandoned in favor of torsion. Philo of Byzantium (c. 280 BC – c. 220 BC) encountered and described…
Oxybeles