Catapult

A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during warfare. The word 'catapult' comes from the Latin 'catapulta', which in turn comes from the Greek Ancient Greek: καταπέλτης (katapeltēs), itself from (kata), "downwards" + πάλλω (pallō), "to toss, to hurl". Catapults were invented by the ancient Greeks.

Greek and Roman catapults

The catapult and crossbow in Greece are closely intertwined. Primitive catapults were essentially “the product of relatively straightforward attempts to increase the range and penetrating power of missiles by strengthening the bow which propelled them”. The historian Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC), described the invention of a mechanical arrow-firing catapult (katapeltikon) by a Greek task force in 399 BC. The weapon was soon after employed against Motya (397 BC), a key Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily. Diodorus is assumed to have drawn his description from the highly rated history of Philistus, a contemporary of the events then. The introduction of crossbows however, can be dated further back: according to the inventor Hero of Alexandria (fl. 1st century AD), who referred to the now lost works of the 3rd-century BC engineer Ctesibius, this weapon was inspired by an earlier foot-held crossbow, called the gastraphetes, which could store more energy than the Greek bows. A detailed description of the gastraphetes, or the “belly-bow”, along with a watercolor drawing, is found in Heron's technical treatise Belopoeica.

Jack Savoretti

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Jack Savoretti (born 10 October 1983) is an Italian-English solo acoustic singer. He has released four studio albums to date: Between the Minds (2007), Harder Than Easy (2009), Before the Storm (2012) and Written in Scars (2015).

Early career

Born to an Italian father and English mother, Savorettii grew up in London before moving to Lugano, a Swiss city near the Italian border. Moving around Europe as a child, he ended up at The American School In Switzerland where he picked up an accent he describes as "transatlantic mutt".

As a teenager, he was interested only in poetry. "I was writing all the time, it was the thing to do, sit under a tree with a notebook, go somewhere else in your head. I was in the clouds." When his mother gave him a guitar and suggested he try putting some of his words to music he was "surprised how much more people listen to you when you are singing than if you read a poem," he admits. "After that, I couldn't stop, it was constant writing, every day, it became almost a form of conversation, the way I interact with the world."