A ballista is not a large crossbow, whatever it looks like from the front. A crossbow keeps its energy in a bent limb. A ballista keeps it in rope — two skeins of twisted animal sinew standing in the frame under savage tension, each gripping the butt of one arm, with the bowstring strung between them. Winding the string back on the winches did not bend anything; it wound those skeins tighter still, and everything the machine did came out of them unwinding. What that bought was reach and precision together. The bolt carried over five hundred yards, and by the fourth century the largest machines could put a dart past twelve hundred; the sources are full of accounts of ballistarii picking off individual men, which is not something you say about an area weapon. Smaller versions existed for exactly that work — the scorpio, a precision piece — and the carroballista rode on its own two-wheeled cart so a legion could bring the guns wherever the legion went.

King & Country give you the men rather than the machine: a senior officer with his crested helmet tucked under one arm, pointing out a target, and his guard standing at his shoulder watching everything else. The officer is worth a close look — greaves on his shins and a harness of discs across his chest, the phalerae awarded for valour, both of which mark him out from the ranks. Line the pair up behind Rome at War or a rank of Kneeling Roman Legion, with Roman Centurion holding the front, and the diorama gains the dimension most Roman displays leave out — depth, and something shooting over the top of the infantry.

Model: ROM034 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 2 piece set