Ancient warfare - generally an old-school affair
where armies face off on the battlefield with weapons and armor - and occasionally
something much larger. Sometimes seaborne. And sometimes…alive?
Here are ten of the most insane ancient super weapons you might have never heard of.
#10. The Zhuge Crossbow
In ancient times, projectiles were still an important part of warfare - but those
using them were usually limited to simple weapons like slings and crossbows. While
they could deliver a fatal blow they weren’t exactly efficient.
The user had to wind up the weapon or align the crossbow, aim carefully, let loose,
and then reload. If they were up against a single enemy or a key target, it could be effective.
If they were up against an army, the weapon-holder would likely be overrun sooner rather than later.
That was high on the minds of military strategists during the Warring States era of Chinese history
more than two thousand years ago. So they created what might be the first semi-automatic weapon
in history - the repeating crossbow, which could fire several shots in quick succession.
Did it pack the power of its traditional counterparts?
Not quite. While traditional crossbows rely on heavy tension to draw the arrow back and propel it
forward, these weapons pack much less force. Their strength is that the action of spanning the bow,
placing the bolt, and shooting is combined into one movement, making it easier to fire in quick
succession. All that’s needed is to move the sliding level back and forth while holding the
pistol grip. It fires from the hip as the lever is pumped forward and back. Its main strength
was speed - but the early examples found in Chinese archaeological digs were lacking in
precision or strength. They likely were only able to deliver puncture wounds rather than fatal arrow
blows. This led many to believe it was more of a minor defensive weapon than a true tool of war.
But these weapons might have had a sinister secret.
The key to this weapon was found in the Gujin Tushu Jicheng, an encyclopedia of Chinese history
written during the 1700s. It was described as a handy little weapon often used by elderly
scholars or women who worked in the palace as a defensive weapon, but they weren’t just
shooting tacks. The arrows they shot were tipped with poison - called “Tiger-killing-poison”,
which was said to kill a person or even a horse if it successfully drew blood. While the weapon
evolved since and was revised several times through Chinese history, the core model remained
largely the same - meaning this fast-firing weapon has lasted several thousand years mostly
unchanged. It was such an effective tool, it was last used in warfare around the 19th century!
This next weapon also made its debut in China - but it packs a bigger punch.
#9. The Trebuchet
The catapult is the ultimate weapon for delivering a large projectile, right? You load it up, cut the
rope, and it’s flung hard enough to break down a rock wall. But that’s nothing compared to the
trebuchet - which was the most powerful projectile weapon before the invention of gunpower.
Designed to use a counterweight and a long arm, it can fire heavier projectiles much further
than the traditional catapult. It all started with the traction trebuchet in ancient China,
around twenty-five hundred years ago. Seventeen feet high with a throwing arm of at least thirty
feet, it relied on manpower - lots of manpower. A large group of men would pull ropes attached
to the end of the trebuchet beam, and when released this creates a massive rotational
force that would propel the projectile further than would be possible with any other machine.
But soon, a much better model would emerge.
The biggest negative of the original traction trebuchet was how much manpower it took to fire
each shot and how long it took to set it up. The model was used for over a thousand years, with
the counterweight trebuchet only being created around the 12th century in the Mediterranean - and
later being adopted by China after they encountered it in battle with the Mongols.
The counterweight trebuchet uses a powerful weight - a heavy box usually filled with rocks or sand.
When attached to the shorter end of the beam and released on command, it does the work of
several men and pulls the beam that creates the force needed to propel the projectile.
This trebuchet is usually larger, stronger - and requires a lot more manpower to build and set up.
But once it’s ready, there were few weapons in ancient warfare who could match its power.
And there’s a reason it’s stood the test of time.
The trebuchet is useful because its basket can carry just about anything. Sure,
the most popular ammo was rocks or other hard objects that could be used to knock
down enemy defenses. But as weapons evolved, incendiary weapons that could set a city afire
could also be loaded into the basket and fired. For those willing to fight dirty, they could even
load up human waste or corpses of soldiers felled in battle and seek to contaminate the
enemy city with deadly diseases. While the weapon declined in use once gunpowder was invented - who
needs a giant machine to fling things when you can just light a fuse right? - it’s one
of the only weapons on this list that’s still recreated frequently today. Recreations have been
built around the world - and even in today’s world of modern weapons, it packs a punch.
But sometimes you need something a bit more…lively.
#8. War Elephants
For steeds in combat, you can’t do much better than the horse. They can carry a lot, they can
move fast, and they’re easy to train. But they’re not going to be knocking down any walls, and
sometimes you need a bit more muscle. Enter the largest land mammal alive - the elephant. Massive,
incredibly strong - and with a bonus limb and tought tusks, it’s not hard to see how they
would make an amazing weapon. There’s just one problem - they’re strong enough to kill a human
in seconds if they get mad, and before you can ride them into battle, you have to train them.
That’s why it took a special talent to train them. The elephant trainer, or the Mahout,
would slowly get the elephant used to being led by using chains and hooks,
then guide them in how to avoid obstacles and follow formation patterns.
And once they were trained, they were near unstoppable.
Although the first elephants were trained for agricultural work in Asia, it’s believed elephant
warfare started in ancient India. They show up repeatedly in ancient Indian epics like Ramayana,
where Kings are frequently depicted riding them into battle. After all, what more impressive way
to indicate who’s in charge than having them atop the king of beasts. But soon they were used in
much larger numbers, being used to provide high ground for archers or to carry heavy equipment.
Elephants are so strong, it was common for small towers to be built on their backs for multiple
soldiers to shoot from. And for those well-trained elephants who could be led into combat, some
armies even attached specialized blades to the tusks to give them an even nastier edge in combat!
But working with giant beasts had its downside.
Elephants were the first tanks - but most tanks don’t get spooked easily.
One elephant getting startled could easily cause a stampede,
leading to a derailed charge or a trampled army. But they were effective for long-distance military
marches - most famously Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps in his war against the Roman Empire.
Between the difficulty of training elephants and the increased rarity of the animals - many
of whom are now hunted for their tusks and highly endangered - military elephants became
increasingly rare as modern technology advanced. By the 20th century, they were a rarity - but they
hadn’t been retired completely. In the Second World War, elephants were used to tow airplanes
and do other heavy-duty tasks in Asia, and they saw limited use as late as the Vietnam War.
This next fiery weapon was ahead of its time.
#7. Greek Fire
You’re aboard a ship carrying soldiers, and you’re about to run into your dreaded enemy - the ships
of the Eastern Roman Empire. They’ve got superior forces, but your men are well-trained and you’re
ready to take on their conventional weapons. But this time, they’re not packing conventional
weapons. They’re packing Greek Fire, and suddenly they pull out a cannon that fires what looks like
a massive plume of flame at you - igniting the ship and sending you and your men leaping off the
boat before it sinks to the bottom of the sea. Was this a strange case of time travel, where someone
from the future made sure they had a flamethrower to keep them from losing a key battle?
Nope. It’s just good old-fashioned chemistry.
What actually is Greek Fire? That’s one of the biggest mysteries of the warfare around 672 CE.
It was primarily used by the Byzantine empire against Arab armies, and had two key parts. An
incendiary compound, usually a powder, would be ignited - but it wouldn’t be allowed to
burn out of control. Instead, it would be fed through a nozzle and pointed outward at the
enemy ship - creating a concentrated burst of flame that would spew straight-forward.
With the necessary closeness and good aim, it could catch an enemy ship on fire
and wipe out an entire army, or at least ignite its sails and leave them stranded. Of course,
the bigger challenge was making sure it didn’t catch your own ship on fire in the process.
But there’s one mystery remaining - exactly what were the ingredients of this weapon.
Greek Fire was written about extensively in books of the era, but they left one major detail
out - the chemical components. This controlled fire not only worked as a flamethrower, but there
were rumors it could stay afire even on the water - making it impossible to steer away easily. This
led to modern speculation that it could have been made of components including naphtha,
quicklime, and pine resin. While it was typically deployed through large carried projectors,
there are also drawings of small hand-held projectors. What could
go wrong with giving each soldier on a boat their own personal flamethrower?
It was also placed into flasks and then thrown - just like an ancient grenade. While it’s faded
into antiquity now, Greek Fire was no doubt an early forerunner of today’s incendiary weapons.
But one country did them one better in explosive weapons.
#6. Huolongchushui
Ah, fireworks. There’s nothing like watching them blow up in mid-air. Sometimes, if you’re lucky,
you’ll get to watch a multi-stage one go off as it dazzles with one release of color after another.
It’s all fun and games - until that rocket is coming right for you. When packed with more
gunpowder, a firework becomes a powerful weapon as well as the going down in history as the first
form of ballistic missile. And they started in the world capital of ahead-of-their-time weapons,
China. It was the 14th century when the Huolongchushui was first recorded,
and it’s well-known that they had fireworks and gunpowder by then.
What wasn’t expected was sophisticated rockets that could deliver more than one stage!
And they didn’t just deliver a blow - they delivered some great aesthetics too!
The Huolongchushui looked a lot like modern rockets. About five feet long, it was made of
a bamboo tube. But they wanted to send a message, so the rocket was given an ornately carved dragon
head and tail. Pour one out for the poor artist who had to design those features only to have them
blown up after one use! And inside the body would be four rockets filled with gunpowder
that could give the tube a powerful launch. Four fuses would be lit, and as they ignited,
the rocket would launch far faster than any other rocket of the era. After all,
four rockets are better than one, and anyone seeing the rocket coming would run for cover.
But you can run, but you can’t hide.
Because the Huolonchushi had a big secret. Inside its mouth were three smaller arrow rockets - and
just as the fuses of the first rockets were about to burn out, they would light the smaller rockets,
which would burst out of the main rocket and hit four different locations instead of just one!
It was the most advanced rocket of its era, and the idea of a multi-stage rocket caught
on - it’s still used in warfare today, with such controversial munitions like cluster
bombs dropping mini-bombs when they explode. While this rocket has faded into obscurity,
it made an appearance in the Disney version of Mulan - and we’re betting that if it was sold
on the fireworks black market, it would be making a return in your neighborhood.
Now, let’s get into a weapon that could serve more than one purpose.
#5. Scythed Chariot
The chariot was a game-changer in combat. Unlike traditional horseback troops, you weren’t fully at
the mercy of a temperamental animal. You could carry more than one person per horse, and the
speed boost was gave the armies that could afford them a massive advantage. Not only did the Romans
make chariot warfare a staple of their military, but they had enough that they could make chariot
races one of their many high-stakes sports. But eventually, the appeal of a horse-drawn chariot
started to wear thin, and armies started to wonder - what if I could improve this? You know what
would make a horse-drawn chariot even better? If it had lots of sharp blades attached to it.
And so, the scythed chariot entered the fray - and everyone nearby ran.
Weaponized chariots were nothing new - those riding in the chariots usually had swords and
crossbows at the ready. What was different here was that the chariot itself was weaponized.
Every wheel had horizontal blades around one meter long sticking out from the sides,
as well as under the driver’s seat. These would tear any enemy soldier
who was unfortunate enough to encouter the chariot to shreds - and more importantly,
it would cut the legs of enemy horses and bring them to the ground along with the enemy forces
riding them. They were an effective way to cut through large infantry groups - a fast-moving
scythed chariot could bring hundreds of men to the ground if it took them by surprise.
So why did it die out?
The scythed chariot apparently made its debut in the Persian military,
reportedly in the mid-400s BC. It saw heavy use in the Persian wars, cutting holes in the famous
phalanx formations of the Greek and Macedonian armies. Armies would learn to avoid the scythed
chariot - but that meant breaking formation and letting the Persians gain ground. However,
they weren’t much use on uneven ground or against more loosely distributed troops - and they also
stood the risk of injuring their own men or horses if they moved in the wrong direction. The scythed
chariot saw more use in the era, but eventually faded from the battlefield - although it was
briefly reinvented by Leonardo Da Vinci, who sketched it as one of his many, many inventions.
And as warfare evolved, the need for new weapons increased.
#4. The Corvus
The First Punic War was one of the most critical wars of the Roman Empire’s heyday,
pitting them against the powerful Carthaginian army. They had powerful ships, and while the
Roman army was no slouch, they were lacking in the naval warfare department. The biggest
challenge was getting to the enemy and fighting them before they made landfall. Fortunately,
the Romans had no shortage of engineers, and one device they created would have been lost
to history - if it wasn’t for the writings of Polybius, a Greek historian responsible
for much of the writings of the era. He made sure the Corvus survived its era, and even
today many historians talk about this impressive - and surprisingly controversial - naval device.
Because in one move, it undid the Carthaginians' naval superiority.
The Corvus was a bridge, attached to a Roman ship, with a small parapet on each side.
The bridge was around four feet wide and thirty-six feet long, but what made it stand
out was that it was attached to the boat by a system of pulleys. When the ship was on the move,
it would be pulled up and out of the way. When an enemy ship approached,
it would be lowered and a spike at the base of the bridge would puncture the deck of the other ship.
With the bridge fixed in place, suddenly dozens of Roman soldiers would board the ship and
ambush them - ending the Carthaginian attack without a costly naval battle,
and leaving the Roman ship intact and free to pull up the Corvus for their next attack.
It was an ingenious invention - or was it?
While this could be challenging in rough seas, it was still easier than trying to place a boarding
bridge manually. The only thing remaining of the Corvus are descriptions from Polybius’ writing,
so not too much is known about its actual construction. This has led to spirited
debates about how much it weighed, whether it was dangerous to use because it could unbalance both
ships, and whether it was actually responsible for several major Roman naval disasters during
the era. Modern architects have created their own designs for the Corvus, trying to
recreate it and see just how Rome pulled off this impressive feat. Other architects, though, insist
the entire thing might have been an elaborate embellishment and may never have existed at all.
But its not out of the realm of possibility considering
they were up against some powerful enemies.
#3. Hellenistic Warships
The Carthaginian naval fleet put the Romans to the test - and they also taught them a thing or two.
Once the Romans emerged victorious, they started developing their own powerful naval fleets.
By the fourth century, these powerful wooden ships were among the largest ever to set sail - and must
have looked more like massive cruise ships rather than standard warships. Without modern engines to
power them, these warships used an old-fashioned method - oars and lots of them. There were five
levels, and each level had three very long oars sticking out of the side of the ship,
with one oarsman breaking their back for each oar. These ships could carry large numbers of soldiers,
but they were often hard to navigate and were subject to going off-course easily.
They looked impressive, but they weren’t the most effective warships of the era.
That honor went to the smaller warships that would come later.
Often known as the Lembos, they required fewer oars and fewer soldiers to drive them,
and were more effective for stealth-based activities like espionage and piracy. While
the massive earlier ships could be effective for storming a port,
these smaller ships could sneak up behind their bigger counterparts,
send agents on board, and sabotage the ship from within. And that might be the only way to
get through some of those massive warships, which were designed for ramming other ships.. Backed by
rows of rowers pushing themselves to the limit, they could simply crash into an inferior navy,
crush the ships beneath their hulls, and train all their fire on the heart of the enemy fleet.
But perhaps the most impressive innovations of ancient warfare were on the ground.
#2. Siege Towers
In ancient times, city-states had figured out the best way to prevent attacks - simply don’t
let anyone in. It was common for cities to have massive walls around them, with the only way in
being through a drawn gate. Sure, the City of Troy tried that and fell to subterfuge - but the “Giant
wooden gift horse” plan only works once. So usually, the only way in was through combat - but
the people behind the walled city usually had a major advantage over those out in the open
shooting at them from the outside. The main strategy was usually climbing the walls,
but those who tried often got hot oil poured on them. So around the 11th century BCE,
the Babylonians and Assyrians came up with a new strategy, build a fortress of your own.
Enter the Siege Tower.
Sometimes as high as forty meters, siege towers were massive wooden formations built on-site
at battles outside walled cities. They would be built as high as the walls of the fortress,
with several levels each manned by soldiers. Sometimes, the tower would even have catapults
or trebuchets built into it, and the concealed nature of the tower made it difficult for the
city’s defenders to know where to aim to take it down. The only option was overwhelming
force - and then it became a one-on-one battle between the fortress and the tower.
If the tower was brought close enough to the wall, moved by hundreds of soldiers, the team
on top could then easily leap over the wall into the city and take the fight inside the fortress.
But these massive weapons had their drawbacks.
For one thing - they were massive! Not only did it take a specially-designed system to move them as
well as a lot of manpower, but one wrong move on the ground could crush people underneath.
Then there was the fact that they were mostly made of wood - and one flaming
arrow could undo them in a way that the walled cities weren’t vulnerable to.
They also took a long time to construct, during which the army might be vulnerable to attack,
and building them off-site and transporting them usually wasn’t feasible. Not only were
they extremely heavy, but they could easily get stuck in muddy ground. Despite these drawbacks,
they were incredibly powerful - and kept on being used by attackers well into the middle ages.
But to find the most insane ancient weapons of all,
we have to go back to one of the most iconic ancient empires.
#1. The Mad Weapons of Archimedes
Across Ancient Greece, there were few names more renowned than Archimedes. A mathematician,
physicist, engineer, and inventor, he was the Da Vinci of his era. Responsible for inventing
many of the core concepts of advanced math - much to the dismay of many schoolchildren - he
came up with countless bold concepts. Some of his inventions, like astronomical instruments,
are still used today. Others were just crazy experiments that never panned out.
But amid his many inventions were two of the craziest weapons ever designed.
But did they actually work?
The first, the Claw of Archimedes, looks like something out of science fiction. It
was designed to defend the city wall of Syracuse against warships. While only descriptions remain,
most historians believe it was a crane equipped with a grappling hook
that would attach to the front of the ship. It would then be raised,
raising the ship with it - and sending the crew and their weapons toppling into the ocean below.
The Claw of Archimedes may have been key during the Second Punic War, when Rome sent powerful
naval fleets against Syracuse - only to be routed, courtesy of the weapon known as the “Iron Hand”.
But was another invention even more deadly?
The Mirror of Archimedes was not a vanity device the famous scientist used in his private quarters.
Rather, his sketches and notes indicated that it was a massive glass that would be mounted to a
ship. By absorbing the sun’s rays, it would then focus them and reflect them back in the direction
the mirror was pointed - right at an enemy ship. The wooden ship would then catch on fire and sink
to the bottom of the sea, in a massive-scale version of frying ants with a magnifying glass.
But did either of these inventions actually work?
With so little evidence of Archimedes’ inventions left, it’s come down to skeptical scientists
and engineers to test them - by recreating them to scale. MIT professor David Wallace
assembled a team of students to test the Mirror of Archimedes. They tried on both
cloudy and sunny days - and the mirror was never able to light a model ship on fire,
leading most to believe this was a colorful myth. On the other hand, the team behind the
series “Superweapons of the Ancient World” on Discovery Channel built a model off what
they knew about the Claw of Archimedes - and succeeded in toppling a model of a Roman ship.
So at least one of Archimedes’ mad inventions may have ruled the seas.
Strange weapons didn’t stop with ancient times - Check out “Weirdest World War 2
Weapons You Never Heard Of” to learn more, or watch this video instead.