Siege in ancient Rome was one of the techniques used by the Roman army to achieve ultimate victory, although pitched battles were considered the only true form of warfare. Nevertheless, the importance that siege action could have in the warfare framework of that era cannot be underestimated. Hannibal was unable to defeat the might of Rome because, although he had defeated the Roman armies in the open field, he had proved unable to assault the city of Rome. As time went on, the armies of the late Roman and Imperial Republics also became particularly adept at siege warfare: Gaius Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul was the combination of a whole series of pitched battles and long sieges, culminating in that of Alesia in 52 BCE. To seize the main center of an enemy people seemed to be the best way to bring a conflict to an end, as also happened in the time of Trajan, during the conquest of Dacia, when the enemy capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, was besieged and occupied.Trajan's Column, no. 86 HERE and 87 HERE. For this purpose, numerous works (an agger surmounted by a palisade, with ditches around it, as well as ramps and pitfalls of various kinds) and siege machines were, therefore, required for variety and functionality, engaging soldiers in the execution of important military engineering works.
Siege techniques The Romans used three main siege techniques to seize enemy cities:
by starvation (it took more time, but less loss of life on the part of the attackers), by creating all around the besieged city a series of fortifications (an innerCaesar, De bello Gallico, VII, 69. and sometimes an outer contravallation,Caesar, De bello Gallico, VII, 74. as in the case of Alesia)Napoleon III, Histoire de Jules César, Paris 1865-1866. that would prevent the enemy from obtaining supplies (of food and even water, by diverting the courses of the rivers) or worse, from escaping, evading the siege, in the hope of leading the besieged to surrender. The attacked site was then surrounded by numerous emplacements, where the main one housed the headquarters, as well as a series of other linked forts.Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, III, 7, 4 (146). with a massive frontal attack, employing a large amount of armor, artillery, ramparts, and siege towers. The final outcome was normally faster but with a high price in loss of armor by the Roman assailant. In this case a preparatory action to the assault, by artillery, was carried out to cause damage to the walls, produce casualties among the besieged and weaken the morale of the survivors. Immediately afterwards, legionaries would approach the city walls in tortoise formation, while archers and slingers would launch a "shower" of darts (including flaming ones) at the besieged, to "cover" the Roman infantrymen. Ladders, mobile towers and rams also approached, until legions and auxilia, having reached the top of the walls, engaged in a series of "hand-to-hand" duels. This was followed by the sacking of the city, now at the mercy of the Roman armies.Yann Le Bohec, L'esercito romano da Augusto alla fine del III secolo, Roma 2008, pp.181-183. with a sudden and unexpected attack that gave the besieged enemy no time to reason.
History of the most significant Roman sieges Over time, the various siege techniques were perfected in ancient Rome, due in part to the input of Hellenic culture from the cities of Magna Graecia, the Etruscans, and the confrontation with the Carthaginian enemy during the three Punic Wars.G.Cascarino, L'esercito romano. Armamento e organizzazione, Vol. II - Da Augusto ai Severi, p.265.
Republican era: first period (509–201 BC)
508/504 BC? A.Piganiol, Le conquiste dei Romani, Milano 1989, p.91. Rome, after the ouster of the last king in 509 BC, was besieged by the Etruscan lucumo, Porsena, who had been called by Tarquinius Superbus to his aid after the Romans established the Republic. Legend has it that Porsena, full of admiration for the acts of valor of Horatius Cocles, Mucius Scaevola and Cloelia, gave up the conquest and returned to Chiusi.Livy Ab Urbe condita libri II, 12-13; Publius Cornelius Tacitus Historiae 72; Aurelius Victor De viris illustribus urbis Romae 11,1; 12, 1-3; Eutropius, Breviarium ab Urbe condita, I,11.
502 BC The first use of war machines by the Romans would date back to this year according to Livy, on the occasion of the siege of Suessa Pometia, conducted with vineae and other undefined structures.Livy, Ab Urbe condita libri, II, 7. From this it can be deduced that there were already military technicians for the construction of the first instruments of poliorcetica on that occasion.
436 BC The city of Fidene was conquered by the Romans with a new technique: while the Etruscans barricaded themselves inside the city, the Romans with false attacks from four different directions at four different times, covered the noise of the excavations and reached the fortress through a long tunnel that passed under the enemy walls.Livy, Ab Urbe condita libri, IV, 22.
396 BC The city of Veii also fell a few years later using the same technique of the tunnel dug under the walls. The fall of the Etruscan city took place, according to legend, after ten long years of siegeLivy, Ab Urbe condita libri, V, 8-25. (similarly to what had happened with the city of Troy).
390 or 386 BC Rome itself was besieged and sacked by an army of Senones Gauls led by Brennus. It represents one of the most traumatic episodes in Rome's history, so much so that it is recorded in the annals as Clades Gallica, or Gallic defeat. Polybius,Polybius, Histories, II, 18, 2. Livy,Livy, Ab Urbe condita libri, V, 35-55. Diodorus Siculus,Diodorus Siculus, XIV, 113-117. and Plutarch bear witness to it.Plutarch, Camillus, 15, 32.
250 BC
In the siege of Lilybaeum they expertly employed all the siege techniques they had learned during the Pyrrhic Wars of 280-275 B.C., including siege towers, battering rams, and vinea.Polybius, Histories, I, 43. It should be added that an early use of throwing machines by the Roman army seems to have been introduced by the First Punic War, where it was necessary to face the Carthaginians in long sieges of their powerful cities, defended by imposing walls and equipped with sophisticated artillery.G.Cascarino, L'esercito romano. Armamento e organizzazione, Vol. II - Da Augusto ai Severi, p.279.
214–212 BC During the long siege of Syracuse operated by Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the Romans had sufficient experience in both sea and land sieges, although they struggled with the innovative defensive techniques adopted by Archimedes.Polybius, Histories, VIII, 3-7. In fact, it is said that when:
However, Archimedes prepared the defense of the city, along the 27 km of defensive walls, with new means of artillery. These were ballistae, catapults and scorpions, as well as other means such as manus ferrea and burning mirrors, with which he put Roman attacks by sea and land in serious difficulty. The Romans, for their part, continued their assaults from the sea with quinqueremes and by land by attacking with every means at their disposal (from siege towers, battering rams, vinae, and sambucae).
Marcellus then decided to maintain the siege, trying to crush the city by starvation. The siege went on for a full 18 months, a length of time so long that considerable disagreements erupted in Syracuse among the people to the point that the pro-Roman side engineered treachery, allowing the Romans to break in in the middle of the night, when the gates of the northern part of the city were opened. Syracuse fell and was sacked, but not the nearby island of Ortygia, which was well protected by other walls and resisted for a short time. The great Syracusan scientist Archimedes, who was killed by mistake by a soldier, also died on that occasion.
212–211 BC In the course of the Second Punic War, while Hannibal succeeded a first time in breaking the siege of the city of Capua (in 212 B.C.), the second time the Romans held firm in Campania.Livy, XXV, 20-22 And although Hannibal had threatened to besiege Rome:Polybius, IX, 4-7
And so Hannibal, noting that Rome's defenses were very strong and the Roman besiegers of Capua did not "break the siege," abandoned the Campanian city, which fell shortly thereafter into Roman hands.
209 BC In the midst of the Second Punic War, Publius Cornelius Scipio succeeded in conquering the Ibero-Carthaginian city of Cartagena (later renamed Nova Carthago), where an arsenal of launching machines amounting to 120 large catapults, 281 small ones, 23 large and 52 small ballistae, as well as a considerable number of scorpions were found inside.Livy, Ab Urbe condita libri, XXVI, 47.
Republican era: second period (200–30 BC)
146 BC During the Third Punic War, at the end of the siege of Carthage, Appian of Alexandria reports that the Romans of Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus captured more than 2,000 throwing machines (including catapults, ballistae and scorpions) in the Carthaginian capital alone.Appian, De rebus punicis et De rebus numidicis, 80.
134–133 BC Sent to besiege Numantia, after many Roman failures, was Consul Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, hero of the Third Punic War. After sacking the country of the Vaccaei, he besieged the city. The army commanded by Scipio was supplemented by a large contingent of Numidian cavalry, supplied by the ally Micipsa, under whose command was the king's young nephew, Jugurtha. First, Scipio endeavored to hearten and reorganize the army discouraged by the stubborn and effective resistance of the rebellious city; then, in the certainty that the citadel could only be taken by starvation, he had a ring road built (a 10-kilometer wall all around it) apt to isolate Numantia and deprive it of any outside help. The consul then endeavored to discourage the Iberians from bringing aid to the rebellious city by appearing with his army at the gates of the city of Lutia and forcing it to submit and hand over hostages. After nearly a year of siege, the Numantines, by now starved, sought a bargain with Scipio, but, learning that he would accept nothing but unconditional surrender, the few men in fighting condition preferred to throw themselves into a last, desperate assault on the Roman fortifications. The failure of the sortie prompted the survivors, according to legend, to burn the city and throw themselves into the flames. The remains of the oppidum were razed to the ground like Carthage a few years earlier.
87–86 BC In the course of the First Mithridatic War, Lucius Cornelius Sulla besieged Athens for a long time, which fell into the hands of the Roman proconsul on March 1, 86 BCE.Livy, Periochae ab Urbe condita libri, 81.1.
74–73 BC During the Third Mithridatic War, Mithridates VI unsuccessfully besieged the Roman city of Cyzicus, which was liberated by the consular Lucius Licinius Lucullus.Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 72-76.
Winter 73–72 BC Lucius Licinius Lucullus proceeded to besiege some cities of the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI, including Themiscyra, which was located on the Thermodon River. Here Appian of Alexandria relates that the Romans built great towers, high mounds and dug tunnels so wide that whole great underground battles could be fought there. The inhabitants of the city then opened some tunnels that accessed those of the Romans, and they threw bears and other ferocious animals, as well as swarms of bees, into them against those who were working there.Appian, Mithridatic Wars, 78. At the same time the Romans also besieged Amisus, using other methods of siege. There the inhabitants bravely repelled them, making frequent sorties, even challenging them in the open field, partly due to the substantial aid that Mithridates sent them, including weapons and soldiers, from Cabira.
73–70 BC