Sambuca (siege engine)

Ship-borne siege engine

This article is about naval weapon. For other uses, see Sambuca (disambiguation).

Reconstruction of a Greek sambuca

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Second Punic War

Prelude

* Saguntum
* Rhone
* Crossing of the Alps

Italy

* Ticinus
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Iberia

* Cissa
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Sicily and Sardinia

* Lilybaeum
* Malta
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North Africa

* 1st Utica
* 2nd Utica
* Great Plains
* Cirta
* Zama

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Punic Wars

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* Mercenary
* Second
* Third

The sambuca (Ancient Greek: σαμβύκη)[1] was a ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heracleides of Tarentum[2] and was first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of Syracuse in 213 BC.[3]

Polybius describes usage of the machine:

> As well as these vessels he had eight quinqueremes in pairs. Each pair had had their oars removed, one on the port and the other on the starboard side, and then these had been lashed together on the sides thus left bare. On these double vessels, rowed by the outer oars of each of the pair, they brought up under the walls some engines called "Sambucae", the construction of which was as follows: A ladder was made four feet broad, and of a height to reach the top of the wall from the place where its foot had to rest; each side of the ladder was protected by a railing, and a covering or pent-house was added overhead. It was then placed so that its foot rested across the sides of the lashed-together vessels, which touched each other with its other extremity protruding a considerable way beyond the prows. On the tops of the masts pulleys were fixed with ropes: and when the engines were about to be used, men standing on the sterns of the vessels drew the ropes tied to the head of the ladder, while others standing on the prows assisted the raising of the machine and kept it steady with long poles. Having then brought the ships close in shore by using the outer oars of both vessels they tried to let the machine down upon the wall. At the head of the ladder was fixed a wooden stage secured on three sides by wicker-shields, upon which stood four men who fought and struggled with those who tried to prevent the sambuca from being made to rest on the battlements. But when they have fixed it and so got above the level of the top of the wall, the four men unfasten the wicker shields from either side of the stage, and walk out upon the battlements or towers as the case may be; they are followed by their comrades coming up by the sambuca, since the ladder’s foot is safely secured with ropes and stands upon both the ships. This construction has got the name "sambuca" or "harp" for the natural reason, that when it is raised the combination of the ship and ladder has very much the appearance of such an instrument.[4]

They were used again unsuccessfully during the siege of Chios.[5] This may have been the siege conducted by Philip V of Macedon in 201 BC, but neither source specified the date.

A different design of machine, also called a sambuca, was used unsuccessfully by Mithridates VI of Pontus in his attack on Rhodes in 88 B.C.[6]

The engine was built upon two ships lashed together and consisted of towers between which an assault bridge was hoisted.[6] Mithridates' sambuca had rams and projectiles as part of its offensive battery.[7] During its deployment but before it could be successfully employed to transport soldiers, it fell. With it, fell the fortunes of the eastern wave against Rhodes, the Pontic king withdrawing.[6] Fifteen years later, Mithridates again used a siege engine, in his unsuccessful attack on Cyzicus.[8] Later classical sources confuse the sambuca for a ship-mounted siege tower. Vegetius used the term sambuca as the name given to the assault ramp mounted on a siege tower.[9]

The name sambuca, is derived from the musical instrument sambuca which it was said to resemble.[10]

## See also[edit]

* Category:Ancient weapons
* Archimedes' heat ray – Device purported to be used by Archimedes to burn Roman ships
* Claw of Archimedes – Greek anti-ship weapon used in 213–212 BC
* Roman engineering – Engineering accomplishments of the ancient Roman civilizationPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
* Roman siege engines – Adapted from Hellenistic siege technology

## References[edit]

1. ^ Plutarch, Life of Marcellus, 15
2. ^ Athenaeus, Diepnosophistae 14.634.
3. ^ Polybius 8.4-6
4. ^ Polybius 8.6.
5. ^ Vitruvius 10.16.9. Athenaeus Mechanicus, 27.9-28.6.
6. ^ a b c Rickard, J (11 December 2008), Siege of Rhodes 88 BC. , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/siege_rhodes_88_BC.html
7. ^ Appian, Roman History, "The Mithridatic Wars", 26, https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_mithridatic_06.html Archived 2015-09-12 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ Duncan B. Campbell, 2005, Siege Warfare in the Roman World (Osprey Press), pp. 18, 33, 67,
9. ^ Vegetius 4.21.
10. ^ Polybius 8.6. Vegetius Epitome of Military Science 4.21

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Battles of the Punic Wars

First Punic War|

* Treaties
* Messana
* Agrigentum
* Lipari Islands
* Mylae
* Thermae
* Sulci
* Tyndaris
* Cape Ecnomus
* Aspis
* Adys
* Bagradas (Tunis)
* Cape Hermaeum
* Panormus
* Drepana
* Lilybaeum
* Drepana (siege)
* Mount Ercte
* 1st Mt. Eryx
* 2nd Mt. Eryx
* Aegates
* Treaty of Lutatius

Mercenary War|

* Utica
* Bagradas
* Hamilcar's victory with Naravas
* Carthage
* The Saw
* Tunis
* Leptis Parva

Second Punic War
(Battles)|

* Saguntum
* Lilybaeum
* Malta
* Rhone
* Crossing of the Alps
* Cissa
* Ticinus
* Trebia
* Ebro River
* Lake Trasimene
* Ager Falernus
* Geronium
* Cannae
* Silva Litana
* 1st Nola
* Ibera
* 2nd Nola
* Decimomannu
* 3rd Nola
* 1st Beneventum
* Syracuse
* Heat ray and Claw of Archimedes
* Sambuca
* 1st Tarentum
* 2nd Beneventum
* 1st Capua
* Silarus
* 1st Herdonia
* Upper Baetis
* 2nd Capua
* 2nd Herdonia
* Numistro
* Canusium
* 2nd Tarentum
* New Carthage
* Baecula
* Petelia
* Grumentum
* Metaurus
* Ilipa
* Sucro
* Carteia (land)
* Carteia (naval)
* Crotona
* 1st Utica
* 2nd Utica
* Great Plains (Bagradas)
* Cirta
* Insubria
* Zama

Third Punic War|

* Lake Tunis
* 1st Nepheris
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* Carthage

* Category
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Ancient seafaring

Vessels

| Types|

* Balangay
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|

Propulsion|

* Paddling
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* Towing
* Poling

Components|

* Anchor
* Bow
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* Figurehead
* Hull
* Planking
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Construction|

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Rigging|

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Armaments|

* Ballista
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Navigation, and ports and harbors

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Ports and
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History

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Civilizations|

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Migration and
exploration|

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Military|

| Navies|

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|

Battles|

* Mediterranean: Alashiya
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* Nile
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Tactics|

* Boarding
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* Oared vessels
* Sailing ships
* Greek navy
* Ramming

By region|

* China
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* Rome
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* Rafts

Economy and trade

* Whaling
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Piracy

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Research and education

| Scholars|

| Historians|

* David Blackman
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|

Archaeologists|

* George Bass
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* Boris Rankov
* J. Richard Steffy
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* Shelley Wachsmann

Topics and theories|

* Coastal defense and fortification
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* Marine art
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Wrecks and relics|

* Earliest:
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* Uluburun
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* Phoenician:
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* Punic:
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* Roman:
* Alkedo
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* Blackfriars I
* Caligula's Giant Ship
* De Meern ships
* Isis
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* Nemi ships
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* Lists:
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Sites|

* H3

Experimental
archaeology|

* Kon-Tiki
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* Phoenician Ship Expedition
* Viking replicas
* Viking

Institutes and
conferences|

* Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology
* Archaeological Institute of America
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* Institute of Nautical Archaeology
* International Congress of Maritime Museums
* Nautical Archaeology Society
* RPM Nautical Foundation
* Sea Research Society
* Society for American Archaeology

Museums and
memorials|

* Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology
* Giza Solar boat museum
* Grand Egyptian Museum
* Ancient Shipwreck Museum at Kyrenia Castle
* Museum of Ancient Seafaring
* Museum of Ancient Ships, Pisa
* National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology
* Viking ship museums:
* Oslo
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Legend and literature

* Legend:
* Ark of bulrushes
* Flood myths
* Genesis
* Gilgamesh
* Greek
* Literature:
* Odyssey
* The Histories (Herodotus)
* On the Ocean
* Argonautica
* The Histories (Polybius)
* Metamorphoses
* Geography
* Aeneid

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