15 GENIUS Ancient Siege Weapons

Ingenious ancient engineers construct some of the most innovative siege weapons in history. Today we'll be taking a look at the most amazing ancient siege weapons!

Several segments are licensed under creative commons

For more video information, please visit our webiste

The Top Fives show brings you informational and entertaining top five videos! Join us and subscribe for more.

Follow us on Facebook!

Note: The videos featured on the Top Fives channel are for educational and informational purposes. If you have a good idea for a video, leave us a comment! We try to read each and every comment made.

[vincentblair]

Archimedes was the greatest mathematician and engineer of the ancient world. It's the combination of the two that truly set him apart. He was SO CLOSE to inventing calculus as well, but he was killed by a Roman foot soldier during the siege of Syracuse even though they had been ordered not to harm him..

[Aundrich]

Hey! It's the simple history dude! Lol

[giantdad]

Archimedes was that one guy who invented weird things that were surprisingly effective.

[andrew]

Archimedes' death ray wasn't a simple mirror. Even concave mirrors would lack the focus and range to track and lit up ships at a distance. He most likely used focus lenses, much like a telescope, on movable gears. Seeing the Mythbusters attempting to replicate that with a hundreds kids holding mirrors was quite funny though.

[marioacevedo]

The last siege tower used in combat was by the US Army in WW2 to re-capture Fort Drum from the Japanese in Manila Bay.

[watchthe]

Limestone is a popular building material. Vinegar can dissolve limestone, the Beotian Flame thrower opened up cracks to allow it inside the wall.

[kingghidorah]

Wait a minute, i think i know this voice, IT'S THE SIMPLEHISTORY DUDE..!!! 😲😲

[yasiluck]

I hope everyone reading this is in good spirits and know that someone loves you .

[davidodonovan]

Thank you very much for this information. I had heard of most of these things, but it's very good to have them all together in one quick video like this. Thank you very much. Well done sir. God bless you.

[josiahscarrmusic]

This video was very interesting there needs to be more of these

[caturbayu]

I learned all these technologies from the game AOE II 😅

[pranit_xa]

When I was a kid I thought that the battering ram mentioned in the books used to be a live or dead ram - goat thrown at the gates of fortresses.

[chrisrnt]

As early as 17th) but as a Greek I m happy hearing almost entirely about Greek warfare😂

[wren]

The hand powered trebuchets most certainly evolved from staff slings. Despite the general depiction, I fully believe that the sling David used against Goliath, and indeed all shepherds used in their vocation, were simple thong slings fitted onto the ends of their shepherd staves as opposed to a hand sling. Indeed, the Greeks consistently used staff slings (or "one man trebuchets" to help you visualize it) as part of their missile barrages during engagements.

Hand slings, although indeed formidable, are far outpowered by staff slings, and it would take nothing for a shepherd to use that instead. It's incredible how much a simple misunderstanding of what was common for a time can shape a tale thousands of years old into something other than it was.

[dariuscommergnat]

Wow, that was a really good video,
I really needed this video because I need to do some essay about these siege artilleries.
Thank you Top fives!

[jamescharlesbutlerjr]

Ancient technology is awesome very amazing ancient tech and weapons.

[twilightparanormalresearch]

Having studied ancient warfare, I’m never surprised at the weapons men create to kill each othet

[adrianaslund]

Catapults are torsion engines and not counterweight though. So trebuchets aren't really catapults. They use the stored springy energy of coils of hair to launch projectiles.

[Dont_cry_my_guy]

The narrator sounds like Charlie Sheen and I cant unhear it

[bigseven]

0:47 The fact that people nowadays still don't know exactly how the Greek Fire was made goes to show how excellent their military was at keeping top secrets.