Ancient Technology

Before Pompeii was engulfed in volcanic ash, its walls may have been battered by an ancient "machine gun" while the city was under siege. A study has uncovered compelling evidence that Roman forces deployed a rapid-fire, mechanically sophisticated weapon known as a polybolos during the city's siege in 89 BC and the scars it left behind have survived for over two millennia. Over 150 years before Pompeii was famously frozen in time by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the city was drawn into the Social War (91–88 BC). This conflict broke out when Rome's Italian allies, long bound to the Republic but denied full citizenship, revolted in a bid for political rights and autonomy. In 89 BC, Roman general Lucius