NARRATOR: The Romans called their boat catapult Scorpio.
Military historian Stephen Bull studies
the Roman art of engineering.
Today, he wants to conduct an experiment with a Scorpio built
to be historically accurate.
How much impact does the Scorpio really have,
and how precisely can it hit a target?
Stephen Bull and his team prepare the Scorpio for firing.
They push the adjustable slider forwards,
pull the string into place, and push the slider back again.
It's said that once aimed, the weapon can hit the same target
with every shot.
Stephen Bull wants to find out if that's true.
That way.
That's it.
That's OK.
Yes, looks good to me.
NARRATOR: Stephen Bull has his men aim the Scorpio.
Fire at will.
Ah.
NARRATOR: Will the next shot hit the same spot?
So we've got a couple of shots which
are pretty close together here.
That's reasonable.
Maybe 45 centimeters, 50 centimeters away
from the other side of the group.
And we also had a couple of misses.
For
NARRATOR: The ancient world, this is remarkably accurate.