Roman Army Museum

Made from hair moss, this is thought to be the only surviving example from Roman times.

It is a dona militaria or military award for valour. Quintus Sollonius not doubt served in a legion. The design of the brooch, showing the god Mars, with the shields/standards either side resemble the Dacians shield on Trajan’s Column at Rome and suggest that he served in Trajan’s Dacian wars, for which reinforcements were certainly sent from Britain.

This was basically an early crossbow, a "catapult with bolts", used by the Roman Army.

The scorpio was a smaller catapult-type weapon, more of a sniper weapon than a siege engine, operated by 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 to propel the bolts.