| Since there has been fighting, there has been siege warfare: even a cave mouth is easier to defend then the open country, because it only takes a few men to hold it while the women and children shelter safely at the back of the cave.
Organised siege warfare came about a little before the time of Alexander the Great, for his empire to expand, Alexander had to conquer many great cities, some well fortified.
The Romans took siege technology to new heights, inventing many dangerous siege weapons, and ingenious tactics. The Romans even made specially shaped stones, so that they could be thrown further, because for all the effective scything, bombarding, launching, springing, dropping and killing contraptions, sometimes it was just easier to throw a rock at the enemy.
The Chinese, Indians, Mongols and other eastern civilizations also improved their own siege capabilities as time went on, with Asian siege warfare reaching new levels around the 17th century, when the siege catapult, or ‘mangonel’, was first devised, and later improved.
Siege warfare in Britain flourished in Medieval times, roughly from when the Normans conquered Britain in 1066, bringing their recognisable, and near un-takeable, castles to the British Isles. European offensive siege technology advanced most during the crusades, when the taking of foreign fortified towns and cities for supplies and rest was vital. The crusaders also witnessed the best of Middle Eastern siege technology and engineering, and took much from these experiences.
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