Design
The scorpio was a smaller catapult-type weapon, more of a sniper weapon than a siege engine, operated by only one man. The scorpio was basically an early crossbow, a "catapult with bolts", probably first invented by the Greeks, then later adopted and used on a larger scale by the Roman legions. This catapult used a system of torsion springs, that made it possible to obtain very great power and thus a high speed of ejection of the bolts.
The complexity of construction and in particular the torsion springs' (which the Romans referred to as tormenta) great sensitivity to any variation in temperature or moisture limited their use. Moreover, this type of technology, which disappeared by the High Middle Ages (with the exception of the Byzantine Empire), reappeared during the First Crusade in the form of a new type of catapult based on a system of slings and counterweights for the projection of stone balls, and as giant crossbows as the field of metallurgy progressed.
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