ballista
The ballista was an artillery weapon first reported in ancient times and heavily associated in the West with the Roman Republic. For the sake of generality, the ballista here is attributed to the medieval age as early as the ...

cataphract
The Cataphract was an ancient evolution of the war horse that consisted of extending the armor protection, provided to the rider, to the horse as well. Various civilizations and empires made use of the cataphract in a variety...

chariot
The chariot, at least in the West, is more closely associated with the Ancient Egyptian civilization than any other - though the design appeared in varying forms with a variety of armies throughout history. In concept, the ch...

Companion Cavalry
The aptly-named Companion Cavalry served under Alexander the Great's Macedonian banner and were based on King Philips learning of Theban Epaminondas (of which Alexander himself was trained as such). Companion Cavalry were cho...

crossbow
For the purpose of this entry, it is assumed that the descriptive term “crossbow” refers to the traditional medieval weapon, though its origins place it as an ancient design. Regardless, it held a definitive place on the batt...

francisca
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gladius
Thanks to his ongoing campaigns against Hannibal across the Iberian Peninsula, the Roman general Scipio Africanus became very familiar with the Spanish short sword. Such respect was given to the processing power of this weapo...

helepolis
Ingenuity was not in short supply considering battles of the ancient world. The helepolis was sucha creation - a mammoth siege-type engine requiring some 200 operators to move the eight-wheeled behemoth into position. The mul...

hoplon
The Hoplon shield was the principle shield of the Hoplite heavy infantry warrior. The Hoplite was the driving force behind the phalanx formations of Ancient Greece in which rows of Hoplites would form seemingly impenetrable s...

incendiary pig
Appearing about 240 BC, incendiary pigs were an interesting weapon thought to have been utilized in ancient Roman warfare. The concept was to cover the pig in tar and a flammable substance and, when lured close enough to the ...

Macedonian hoplite
The phalanx proved to be the military success of the ancient Greece, perfected by the warring society of Spartans and copied the world over. By the time of Alexander the Great, the phalanx continued to be the bread-and-butter...

pilum
With the thrusting / throwing spears of the ancient world slowly on their way off of the world stage, Roman soldiers were becoming an amalgam of the old and new eras of warfare. The spear as a frontline weapon now gave way to...

sambuca
The sambuca was a siege weapon of the ancient world capitalizing on basic leverage principles. The system featured a wheeled base with a tunnel-like apparatus on top. The tunnel was hinged on the short end. Ground troops coul...

steepe pony
The Steppe Pony was an ideal choice of war horse for the roaming bands of warriors found through Asia and Europe following the demise of the Roman Empire. Born from the steppes, the steppe pony's design attributed to it's suc...

testudo
The testudo (or tortoise) was a revolutionary battlefield formation utilized by the Roman Empire. The formation of Roman soldiers utilized their shields in an interlocking fashion, effectively creating a type of tortoise shel...

war dog
War Dogs have had a role in warfare since their domestication. For the purpose of this entry, we assign the war dog to the Roman Republic (240 B.C.) though Asia and even North America domesticated the dog as early as 10,000 B...

war elephant
The War Elephant was an ancient battlefield weapon popularized most notably by India. The pondering beasts were trained and domesticated to the fullest extent and commanded by a driver straddled across the great beast's neck....