Description
Named after the wild ass with a dangerous kick, the onager catapult had a mighty kick all of its own, as crews quickly discovered. Although not accurate, it could hurl extremely heavy missiles over significant distances. Its throwing arm was pushed through a twisted bundle of animal sinew, held in a solid wooden frame. Pulled back, the tension in the sinew held an incredible amount of power until the arm snapped forwards and the deadly cargo was launched. The arm smacked into the frame, and it was this impact on every shot that made the entire machine lurch about unpredictably. An area-attack weapon, the onager was best suited to siege work, but it could be fired against tightly packed units of troops as well. The missiles launched could be as varied as rocks, clay pots filled with incendiary mixtures, and even dead bodies to spread disease and despair. Severed heads were gruesomely fired into besieged towns from time to time, as a warning of what was to come. Easily constructed from timber, the onager was used throughout the ancient world.
