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Artillery was a regular feature of the ancient battlefield. In the ancient world, artillery referred to large weapons that could fire bolts, stones or projectiles. These were very effective, and they were routinely used in sieges by both the defenders and the attackers. They were mainly used for defensive purposes because they were bulky and not very mobile. Caesar in his campaigns in Gaul brought these weapons in his train, for sieges. These included the ballista which could fire massive bolts and catapults, that could hurl rocks a great distance. Caesar in Gaul began to use these not as defensive weapons but as offensive weapons. He was able to integrate these weapons into his offensive strategies and employ them in conjunction with the legionnaires and cavalry.
Caesar recognized that catapults and ballistas could break up the massed formations of the Gaul’s. This allowed the Roman general to attack much larger forces and defeat them. Caesar also used these heavy weapons very successfully in the invasion of Britain. He skillfully used the ballistas on his ships to break the British formations that were preventing him from landing on the shore of southern England. He was a pioneer in the offensive use of this weapons and employed them on the battlefield and not just in sieges.<ref> Hans Delbrück, Warfare in Antiquity, trans. Walter J. Renfroe, Jr., History of the Art of War 1 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), p. 541</ref>. The only other ancient general who deployed artillery in this way was Alexander the Great. Caesar’s use of artillery was imitated by generations of future Roman commanders. However, Caesar was also able to use artillery in a conventional way and he was a master of siege warfare. He stormed many Celtic hill forts in Gaul by using ballistas and catapults, such as at the siege of Siege of Uxellodunum, in Gaul .<ref> Caesar, p. 221</ref>.
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